When a child is subjected to related misconduct at the hands of someone other than an aid worker, this is defined as sexual violence. Sexual violence against children occurs in every country, across all segments of society. Women and children in emergency settings face the greatest risk of sexual exploitation and abuse. High levels of need resulting from scarce resources, food shortages or economic insecurity can intensify the power imbalance in emergency settings, raising the possibility of sexual exploitation and abuse by humanitarian aid workers on whom communities depend, or by peacekeepers providing protection. Humanitarian assistance programmes should be designed and delivered not only to mitigate the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse, but to provide the necessary response when abuse occurs.

Every year, the Aghsan Foundation respond to emergencies around Iraq, with employees in our organization contributing to the delivery of vital programmes for children affected by conflict, natural disasters and other crises. Keeping children and adults safe from potential sexual exploitation and abuse by employees in our organization requires action across the Aghsan Foundation – by training personnel, vetting employees sign the code of conduct, the child protection policy, PSEA policy and providing immediate response when abuse does occur. Aghsan Foundation takes an organization-wide approach to the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, in which child protection workers play a critical role, together with investigators, human resource and ethics personnel, and others. Aghsan Foundation developed a common set of standards and services for survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse in the Victim Assistance Protocol, which outlines the core principles, standards, roles to promptly refer and provide assistance to survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse. We also developed strengthen the approach to sexual exploitation and abuse.