Women come forward to tell of attacks by colleagues worldwide, and accuse NGOs large and small of failing to protect them

Women working for international aid agencies are facing a hidden threat of sexual violence and harassment which their employers routinely ignore or sweep under the carpet, according to testimonies gathered by the Guardian.

While exact statistics on the scale of sexual assault in the sector are hard to come by, many working for humanitarian groups worldwide say sexual predation is an unreported and growing evil that needs to be addressed by those at the top.

Raped by a colleague then fired: the aid worker who refused to keep quiet Read more

Women have told the Guardian that organisations – from major international non-governmental organisations and UN agencies to smaller charities – are failing to support and protect their workers from sexual abuse. Victims who speak out are often labelled troublemakers.



One American aid worker, Sarah Pierce, said she was sacked this year by the Atlanta-based Carter Center after being raped by a colleague from a local NGO while working in South Sudan.

“I received little justice and no support,” said Pierce (not her real name). “It wasn’t ‘Are you OK? Do you need medical attention?’ After I continued to speak out about what had happened and the organisation’s failure to meet the basic duty of care to its staff, I was fired.”



The Carter Center insists it supported Pierce, adding: “She was provided medical treatment and encouraged and supported to seek counselling.” It refused to comment on why her contract was subsequently terminated, citing the need to maintain confidentiality in such cases.

The Headington Institute in California, which provides psychological support for aid workers, has begun research to assess the scale of the problem. Alicia Jones, its assistant director, said: “This is massively underreported: no one has an accurate read on this at the moment. Most agencies are hearing about these events internally, but survivors are choosing not to report for a variety of reasons.



“We think it’s likely that 1% or more (between 5,000-10,000 people) experience this during their humanitarian career. But male or female, this is an issue everyone fears, even if they are not naming it. It’s a worst-case scenario that everyone is thinking about.”

Humanitarian security expert Christina Wille said: “Unfortunately there is no systematic data on sexual violence … it is very rarely reported through the existing standard channels of humanitarian security incident reporting. Data on the types, context and location of incidents would be extremely helpful, not least as it would shed some light on a subject that is pretty much swept under the carpet.”

In the past few weeks the International Women’s Rights Project, based in Canada, has been attempting to quantify the scale of sexual violence and harassment among humanitarian workers.

More than 1,000 people, mostly women, have come forward in response to an IWRP survey that asks them to disclose their experiences of sexual intimidation and violence within the humanitarian sector. Most have started to disclose incidents and then stopped, something the organisers believe is indicative of the fear of coming forward.

Megan Nobert went public earlier this year to reveal she had been drugged and raped by a fellow humanitarian aid worker on a UN operations base in South Sudan. She said in addition to the 1,000+ responses, she had been contacted privately by many women describing sexual assaults and intimidation.

Nobert said people were scared to report sexual assaults and abuse because of their fears of a backlash and a lack of support from within their organisations. “There’s been a real theme of organisations saying: ‘Suck it up. This is something you should expect, even if it’s a colleague doing it.’

“There have been CEOs, country directors, managers saying exactly that. The humanitarian sector is still a very macho world. The majority of country directors are still men. What we need is for a recognition that there is a problem that sexual violence occurs within the humanitarian community. That is the first step in breaking the stigma, being open that this is happening and we need to talk about it.”

A senior source within the New York based International Rescue Committee, run by the former British foreign secretary David Miliband, criticised inadequate policies within her organisation on sexual harassment and violence towards staff. “I have seen the organisational response to the full spectrum of sexual harassment and violence, including rape … and I would say now that if I was raped during a country visit I would not report it to my organisation.”

Speaking out meant being labelled a feminist troublemaker, the source said. “There’s a strong boys club operating and our jobs often depend on our reputation. It’s deeply ironic that there is so much mythology about the ‘heroism’ of humanitarian workers in the public imagination for being in places of war and conflict … in truth for women the risks in these environments are often much less than the risks from the men around us.”

The source added that agencies needed to face up to their responsibilities and provide safer ways for victims to report attacks, and much better training for staff on how to handle incidents and support individuals. “We need to ‘do right’ by survivors by protecting their dignity, choice and confidentiality throughout the process,” the source said. “We need to prevent perpetrators from simply moving from agency to agency. We need to have much better conversations internally than we are having at the moment.”

A spokesman for the International Rescue Committee said the organisation did have policies in place to record and deal with misconduct and support mistreated staff.

“The IRC takes very seriously any allegations that members of our staff have been mistreated. We have a robust follow-up process for any allegations anonymous or otherwise and staff are informed as to how to raise an issue. Allegations can be made via a third party (anonymously if preferred) and this is available to staff globally. We endeavour to make sure all IRC staff know what’s available to them,” he said.



“Every incident of misconduct is logged and documented in a case management and recording system.”

Guardian Global Development Professionals Network is running a series on this and other issues affecting aid workers. Email globaldevpros@theguardian.com to share your story