The fallout from the sexual misconduct scandal at the charity Oxfam was “completely distorted and out of all proportion” according to a former secretary of state for international development, Clare Short.

Speaking to the international development committee on Tuesday, Short said she did not believe sexual abuse was a “special problem” within charities.

The aid sector has faced intense scrutiny following reports in the Times newspaper that Oxfam covered up claims that its staff used sex workers while working in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

In response to the allegations, Oxfam agreed to stop bidding for UK government funding, while the charity’s chief executive, Mark Goldring, who was appointed in 2013, announced he would stand down at the end of the year. Further allegations have since emerged involving Oxfam, Save the Children and the United Nations.



Short told the committee’s inquiry into sexual exploitation and abuse, which was set up in the aftermath of the Oxfam scandal, that while no form of sexual abuse should be tolerated, it is not unique to the aid sector.

“I think the way the Times covered this allegation about one man in Haiti was completely distorted and out of all proportion. It doesn’t mean what he did was acceptable. I graduated in ‘68 – university lecturers used to come on to young students. When I was an official in the Home Office there was a senior official who tried it.

“I think if you went to the Times newspaper there would be people who misused their power. Certainly in my time in DfID there was an ambassador who was having affairs with lots of different people,” said Short, adding that the whole of government needed to have better codes of conduct.

Pressed by Pauline Latham MP, who said that exploitation by charity workers often involved the most vulnerable people in the world, Short added she was not suggesting such cases should not be taken seriously.

“I think probably people quite rightly expect more of people working in development than they do of people working in other fields. I’m not in any way trying too belittle taking it seriously, but I did think the hysterical response to the Times reporting – as though everyone working in development was morally disgusting and everyone was sexually abusing everyone – was way exaggerated and disproportionate,” she said.

Short, who was secretary of international development for six years, said she had not considered herself responsible for the management of NGOs, which received less funding from the UK government at that time. “I always had a sense of responsibility for funding and management of the money but I didn’t know much about the internal management of those organisations, which I think is normal,” she said.



She added that she was not aware of a report produced by the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) and Save the Children in 2001, which identified dozens of aid organisations, including UK charities, whose workers were accused of sexually exploiting children. She said she could not recall any allegations being made against British peacekeeping troops.

Short said that the UK had only recently faced up to the scale of child sexual abuse across all sectors and that further policies were needed to protect communities served by charities.

The committee also heard evidence on the United Nations’ handling of sexual misconduct allegations, including cases involving both peacekeeping troops and civilian staff. Paula Donovan, co-director of Aids-Free World and its Code Blue campaign, told the inquiry that the UN’s reporting mechanisms were opaque and fraught with conflicts of interest.

“The remedy for this situation is to take this issue out of the hands of the institution so that it’s not policing itself and it’s not making judgments on itself,” she said.

“The fundamental problem is that if you should report [as a victim], you’re reporting to the wrong entity. You’re reporting to an entity with no neutrality, with a built-in bias.”

The Code Blue campaign has proposed that UN member states establish a temporary independent oversight panel to closely monitor and evaluate, in real time, the UN’s response to individual allegations of sexualised offences, and make expert recommendations on UN policies and procedures.