Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: UNICEF IASC Championship 2018-2019

From September 2018 to September 2019, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore served as the Inter-Agency Standing Committee “Champion” on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, and Sexual Harassment. In this capacity, she focused her agenda on strengthening the country-level systems for SEA prevention and response. The following is a report to the Emergency Relief Coordinator and IASC Principals on progress made during the IASC Championship, as well as the challenges and next steps for advancing a system-wide approach to PSEA.

Under UNICEF Executive Director Fore’s leadership, the IASC developed and endorsed the IASC Plan for Accelerating PSEA in Humanitarian Response at Country Level (“the IASC Acceleration Plan”), which commits to scale-up PSEA through collective action and investment by its members.

The IASC Plan articulates three priority outcomes to be implemented as part of every Humanitarian Response Plan or Refugee Response Plan:

1) safe and accessible reporting mechanisms that can receive and respond to incidents of SEA;

2) quality assistance for survivors of SEA; and

3) the ability to offer survivors prompt, confidential and respectful investigations.