Charity Commission alert to international aid charities urges further safeguarding work
Melanie May | 25 June 2021 | News
The Charity Commission has issued a formal regulatory alert to international aid charities, urging them to address weaknesses around safeguarding.
It has contacted over 5,000 charities working overseas with the alert, highlighting ways safeguarding can be improved, such as making it easier for aid recipients to report allegations of misconduct and abuse and taking a ‘survivor-centred’ approach to handling incidents of harm.
The Charity Commission has seen an increase in serious incident reports on safeguarding matters by charities, which it says indicates improved reporting and complaint mechanisms. In 2019-20 it received 5,730 reports of serious incidents, of which 3,411 related to safeguarding, a nearly 40% increase on the previous year (3,895 and 2,504 respectively). While the international development sector has made “significant progress” on safeguarding since 2018, the Commission says further work is needed to ensure “transformative change” for those in receipt of aid.
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Helen Stephenson, Chief Executive of the Charity Commission, said:
“I know that many international aid charities, doing vital work in challenging environments, have worked hard to improve their safeguarding practices over recent years. But we continue to see cases of harm perpetrated by people in positions of power in charities working overseas.
“More needs to be done. Leaders of international aid charities need to ensure they have the systems and structures in place that prevent and root out harmful behaviour and empower victims and survivors to raise concerns. But systems alone are never enough – they need to be underpinned by leaders who place the highest priority on keeping people safe. There is simply no room for complacency.”
Other recommendations from the alert:
- Joining the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme to help protect against individuals who pose a risk.
- Giving victims and survivors, and their families and friends, a safe means to report concerns and complaints.
- Designing reporting mechanisms that are sensitive to the local context.
- Developing a survivor-centred approach to safeguarding that reflects the range of potential harms faced and considers possible victim and survivor support services from programme/project conception.
- Clearly communicating what support is available to victims and survivors and how it is accessed.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.