The international development secretary said the “grotesque” sexual exploitation of the most vulnerable by aid workers was caused by Britain’s failure in its duty to put aid beneficiaries first.

The scandal has shown that aid organisations have become complicit in the exploitation of people they were supposed to help, Penny Mordaunt said.



To recover from the “wake-up call” of the Oxfam scandal, Mordaunt added, aid organisations needed to live up to their values and deliver on their promises to the world’s poor.

Mordaunt, who has accused Oxfam of a “complete betrayal of trust” over the way it handled the Haiti revelations earlier this month, warned aid groups: “You cannot help and support people, you cannot give them hope and a chance, you cannot promote human rights or the dignity of every human being, whilst paying them for sex, and whilst funding an industry that exploits them.”



The aid sector is reeling from revelations that organisations including Oxfam, Save the Children and the United Nations have mishandled allegations of sexual misconduct. Oxfam’s work was temporarily suspended in Haiti pending an investigation into how it handled claims of former staff paying for sex.



Meanwhile the chief executive of Save the Children has dismissed as “tittle tattle” reports that he was forced to step aside from a review of its handling of complaints of sexual misconduct amid a conflict of interest.

Kevin Watkins, who has run the charity since September 2016, said he had had no intention of taking part in the review process from the outset and had informed the board of his decision.

Penny Mordaunt, in a reflective speech to a conference run by Bond, the UK network for international development organisations, asked: “How did those, there to protect, support and serve the most vulnerable people on earth, become complicit in their exploitation – by protecting the perpetrators, by failing to grip the problem or turning a blind eye?



“Because we failed to put the beneficiaries of aid first. How did we lose sight of that fundamental duty, for all the good people, many in this room today, and all the good works done? For be in no doubt that is what has happened.

“It may have started with an attitude born of fundraising pressures, fierce competition for bids or work, guarding an organisation’s reputation to maximise its reach and offer.

“That attitude found a justification, via the chaotic and complex situations we operate in, the belief that reporting wrongdoing would do more harm than good, that we’ve so many other things to worry about, or that peacekeeping troops are doing far worse. And then any nagging doubts that lingered, as predatory individuals moved to another organisation’s payroll, were banished, in order to avoid any criticism of the sector.”

In reference to Oxfam, the result, she said, was the “grotesque fact of aid workers sexually exploiting the most vulnerable people”.

Aid organisations needed a “to be” list as well as a “to do” list, she said.

The MP for Portsmouth North, who has banned aid applications from Oxfam until it can meet the high standards expected, said she would stop funding organisations that fail to do so.

But she praised the “passionate, committed, tireless individuals” doing amazing work in the sector and said she remained committed to the 0.7% of GDP spend on aid. She told them: “I believe in you, in why you chose this career and in why you are here today.

“Since the Oxfam scandal broke, you and UK aid have helped vaccinate around 1.5 million children from polio. That’s heroic.

“But if we have the courage and the will to change we can do more.”

She said it was important that the UK delivered on the sustainable development goals, for “the 10 million more children who will see their fifth birthday … and the 400 million more able to read and write”.

Separately, Save the Children’s chief executive, Kevin Watkins, said he was “surprised” to read newspaper reports that he was forced to recuse himself from a review of the organisation’s handling of complaints of sexual misconduct.

Watkins, who was a trustee of the charity for eight years, said that when he announced the review on 18 February he also advised that he would not be participating in it.

“It would be completely inappropriate for the CEO and former trustee to do so,” he said.

“The idea that I had to recuse myself has no basis in reality.”

Watkins said he announced the internal review, of organisational culture at the charity, as part of his commitment to fixing the issues thrown up by recent misconduct allegations.

Asked what he knew about claims of sexual harassment by senior figures when he was a trustee of the charity, Watkins told the Guardian: “When I was a trustee if I had felt there was improper process I would have resigned as a trustee. I had no grounds for believing there was an improper process.”

He said: “But I’ve also made it clear that we need an independent review. The reason I set up the review was as a dispassionate diagnosis of where we are at.”