International development: safeguarding statement

We expect the highest moral and ethical standards from those we fund to provide services to those people and communities who look to our support at their time of greatest need. The international development sector, the humanitarian sector and the climate justice sector involve working with particularly vulnerable groups of people. We are clear that communities must always be put first, by the Scottish Government itself and by its partners.

We expect all partners we work with to take all reasonable steps to safeguard the people they come into contact with from Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH). We hold ourselves to at least the same high standards we expect of our partners. Where we are involved in funding organisations involved in delivering international development, climate justice or humanitarian assistance, we are committed to supporting them, providing a robust framework, and holding them to account in order to achieve those objectives.

We align with international minimum standards on tackling SEAH contained within the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Minimum Operating Standards on Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

We expect our partner organisations wherever they are to monitor their work closely, and to be open, honest and transparent whenever there are any suggestions of abuse or malpractice. This is reflected in our grant conditions, which are regularly reviewed.

We recognise that the vast majority of those working in international development, climate justice and humanitarian emergencies do so in a diligent and appropriate manner. However, we will not hesitate to take appropriate action whenever we suspect that any abuse has occurred and our standards for the handling of such incidents are not being upheld, and we expect the same commitment from those working with us.

Principles

We are committed to applying the following principles in relation to safeguarding against SEAH. We expect our partner organisations and their downstream partners to apply these principles in their work:

• do no harm
• be accountable, transparent and safe
• everyone has responsibility for safeguarding
• organisations have a safeguarding duty of care to communities, stakeholders, staff and volunteers, as well as to children and adults at risk who may be directly or indirectly delivering or impacted by our work and may be vulnerable to abuse
• all activity is done in the best interests of the child/at risk person in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Scottish Government defines a child or children as persons who have not yet attained the age of 18 years as stated in section 97(1) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014
• all children and adults shall be treated equally, irrespective of their protected characteristic as listed in the Equality Act (2010)
• organisations that work with children and adults at risk should apply a safeguarding lens to their promotional communications and fundraising activities

We will continue to have regular dialogue with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and the UK Government on their own activity on these matters, and to work collectively and constructively with others within the international development sector, including our own partner organisations and the wider international development sector in Scotland.

Grant conditions and contract clauses

The Scottish Government, international development, humanitarian and climate justice grant conditions make it explicit that our partner organisations must have robust safeguarding policies in place (and have carried out due diligence on their in-country partner in that regard too), and have processes in place regarding notifying Scottish ministers of any safeguarding incidents. All grant funding is subject to these conditions.

Our contract model services terms and conditions also contain clauses which require suppliers to have robust safeguarding policies, procedures and good practice in place to prevent any harm and abuse to all people they have contact with, including harm or abuse that may arise from the misuse of power and position of staff and representatives.

Our commitment

We have signed up to the donor commitments to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment in the international aid sector, which included the following four commitments:

• ensure support for survivors, victims and whistle-blowers, enhance accountability and transparency, strengthen reporting, tackle impunity
• incentivise cultural change through strong leadership, organisational accountability and better human resource processes
• adopt minimum standards, and ensure we and our partners meet them
• strengthen organisational capacity and capability across the international aid sector, including building capability of implementing partners to meet the minimum standards

Reporting

Reports of safeguarding concerns relating to Scottish Government programme should be made to implementing partners through specified appropriate channels. They can also be reported directly to the Scottish Government International Development and International Climate Change Division at SafeguardingReportODA@gov.scot