Presented by: ACFID’s (Australian Council for International Development) safeguarding community of practice at the Oceania Connect Conference 2020
In early 2018, the NGO community was rocked by scandals in the sector surrounding the abuse of vulnerable people. And even more recently, the DRC revelations, with multiple accounts of SEAH related incidents during the Ebola crisis response, were gut wrenching.
Since early 2018, we have seen standards for safeguarding, donor and regulatory requirements at every level. With the best possible intentions we have created policy, process, system to meet every requirement. Our organisations are working tirelessly to educate staff, implement with partners, report to donors. And so, we must conclude we are succeeding. But, are we?
The system emerging to support PSEA is now extremely complex, and ever-changing. Despite our best intentions, we’re wrapping in mystery and terminology a principle that should be very simple – keep the people we seek to serve safe, always.
Critical to our success is to shift the power. Fundamental to our achievement of the SDGs is to recognise the power dynamics that not only create the circumstances where such abuses of power manifest. But this understanding must inform our framing of solutions and success too.
Hosted by ACFID’s safeguarding community of practice, this panel will bring together technical experts, standard-setters and in-country partners to discuss our progress in PSEAH, the fundamental challenges within a complex system, and how we collectively find our way to the fundamentals we need to do better.
