The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) confirmed its commitment to addressing and preventing sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment by joining other donors in endorsing the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) Recommendation on Ending Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance: Key Pillars of Prevention and Response.  

The OECD-DAC's recommendation is the first international instrument that addresses these issues in development and humanitarian assistance, and reflects agreement on standards by all major donor countries.   

Among its key goals, the Recommendation will encourage donors to continue to strengthen protections for aid beneficiaries, enhance oversight, improve monitoring, and emphasize a survivor-centered approach to addressing these issues.  It gives the aid community specific benchmarks for systemic organizational improvements applicable to all OECD members, and institutes a periodic peer-review process to monitor progress towards their implementation.  

It also sends a strong message to USAID implementing partners, the United Nations, non-government organizations, and partner governments, about our collective expectations of them and what measures we will take to ensure accountability. 

This Recommendation underscores USAID's commitment to zero tolerance for sexual misconduct.  In 2018, Administrator Mark Green launched the Action Alliance for Preventing Sexual Misconduct (AAPSM) with the goals of promoting a respectful, inclusive, and safe workplace for USAID's employees, and ensuring that USAID-funded programming protects human dignity. 

Since the launch of the AAPSM, USAID has actively engaged with other donor governments to improve the aid community's response to these issues, including through the G7 Development Ministerial's Whistler Declaration on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in International Assistance, the Tidewater Joint Statement on Combating Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Development and Humanitarian Sectors, and the International Safeguarding Summit hosted by the United Kingdom.  

For more information, please visit: http://www.usaid.gov/PreventingSexualMisconduct.