Attachments
For the purposes of the AAP/PSEA Working Group, the Asia Pacific region covers over thirty countries and regions, representing a diverse range of challenges.1 Looking across the region, protracted crises, displacement, long-running internal conflict, natural disasters, remote communities/lack of access to communities, lack of infrastructure, chronic poverty, economic woes, rapid urbanisation, irregular migration, are just a few of the challenges facing the aid community. Authoritarian governments and an erosion of the Rule of Law are coupled with corruption and abuse of authority in many country contexts, presenting additional hurdles for aid agencies to successfully implement programs.
There is clearly no one-size-fits all approach when it comes to aid programming in the Asia Pacific region; people must be put squarely in the centre of all interventions so that programming can be more effective and aid can reach those in need. That there is a plethora of terms to elevate the importance of this central principle – Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), community engagement, putting people at the centre – reflect the need to ensure that, as a sector, we are meeting our commitments. These need to be met across all programs – be they humanitarian, development, peacebuilding, disaster preparedness, or contingency planning.
PSEA is distinctly linked to accountability to affected populations (AAP), with a high profile and a strong set of specific commitments. The six core principles of PSEA are articulated in the Secretary General’s Bulletin of 2003 (ST/SGB/2003/13) and were amended by the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) in 2019:
Six Core Principles PSEA
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Sexual exploitation and abuse constitute acts of gross misconduct and are therefore grounds for termination of employment.
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Sexual activity with children (persons under the age of 18) is prohibited regardless of the age of majority or age of consent locally. Mistaken belief regarding the age of a child is not a defence.
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Exchange of money, employment, goods, or services for sex, including sexual favours or other forms of humiliating, degrading or exploitative behaviour is prohibited. This includes exchange of assistance that is due to beneficiaries.
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Any sexual relationship between those providing humanitarian assistance an protection and a person benefiting from such humanitarian assistance and protection that involves improper use of rank or position is prohibited. Such relationships undermine the credibility and integrity of humanitarian aid work.
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Where a UN staff member or humanitarian worker develops concerns or suspicions regarding sexual abuse, by a fellow worker, whether in the same agency or not, he or she must report via established agency reporting mechanisms.
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UN staff and humanitarian workers are obliged to create and maintain an environment which prevents SEA and promotes the implementation of their code of conduct.
Accountability to Affected People (AAP) is an active commitment by aid agencies to use power responsibly to take account of, give account to, and be held to account by the people they seek to assist. Systematic and coordinated community engagement ensures that aid responses and programming are accountable to affected people. In this light, system-wide accountability is essential to meeting organisational and collective commitments as outlined by the IASC, the Grand Bargain Participation Revolution (Workstream 6) and the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS).
Similarly, concepts such as do no harm, safeguarding, safe programming, protection against sexual exploitation and abuse – are all about mitigating against abuse of power. A key tenet of the Regional Working Group is to foster the integration of these key principles across all sectors irrespective of where they sit along the development/humanitarian continuum, promoting best practices to ensure that the aid community improves on our commitments to the people we serve.
In this context, outreach will be made to both UN Resident Coordinators and Humanitarian Coordinators as the most senior UN officials in-country and ultimately accountable for ensuring that we are engaging with communities and not abusing our power. This accountability stems from various documents and policies (see above). In so doing, the Working Group will endeavour to be inclusive, practical and sustainable in order to support colleagues in the region to meet these commitments both in the short term and in the future.