This blog post was published by USAID to coincide with the 16 Days of Activism against
Gender-based Violence event, “Who Takes Care of the Caregivers? Providing Care and Safety for Staff in
Gender-based Violence Settings,” taking place on Thursday, Nov. 29th 2012 in
Washington DC, hosted by the Inter-Agency Gender Working Group, funded by
USAID. It was originally posted at:
Gender-based Violence (GBV) is an issue that impacts aid workers
– not just beneficiaries and not just staff that works in GBV settings. This
post examines agencies’ duty to care for their workers by preventing and
responding to GBV.
“Keeping
International Workers Safe: Preventing
and Responding to Gender-based Violence”
Sarah Martin, Consultant and
Specialist on Prevention and Response to Gender-based Violence
The sexual assault of the journalists Lara Logan, Mona Eltahawy
and two unnamed British and French journalists in Egypt shocked the world and
brought the issue of gender-based violence (GBV) against Westerners working in
conflict areas to the forefront. Clearly GBV does not only affect the "locals" in these areas. Not only are journalists at risk but also aid
workers–and not just in conflict settings or in GBV program areas.
I recently interviewed a large cross section of women travelers
who work in a number of fields (including international development, human
rights, humanitarian action and international business) about their experiences
as women while traveling and working overseas*. Many of them brought
up their frustration that sexual harassment and sexual assault were never
raised in security trainings and that agencies refused to address this as a
real security concern. Increasingly, aid agencies are providing more
“realistic” security trainings that simulate “hostile environments to prepare
their employees for gunfire, kidnappings and other events in the field.” While
some of these trainings talk about sexual assault, there are no discussions of
how to prevent sexual assault or how to react or support colleagues if they are
assaulted. Sexual harassment in the workplace as a security issue is often ignored.
In addition, the purveyors of these trainings are mostly male and show little
awareness to the issue of sexual assault or the gender concerns of female
trainees. I recently attended one such training where one of the participants
relived her own sexual assault from years ago while undergoing a simulated
“kidnapping.” While they took her out of the simulation, there were no
psychologists or female trainers available to talk to her.
Female development and aid workers have the same security
concerns as their male counterparts: crime and landmine accidents and armed
robberies do not discriminate. Security measures, trainings, and manuals are
the same for men and women, and most agencies take a ‘gender-blind’ approach to
security. Most security officers are men, and many of them come from a military
background. This gender-blind approach to security, however, leaves out a major
issue. Women also face another security threat that most men do not
encounter – gender-based violence, namely sexual harassment and sexual
violence.
Rape myths promote the false idea that women are only sexually
assaulted by strangers. While this can happen, women are much more likely to be
attacked by someone familiar to them – a co-worker, a driver, or a friend. Most
of the women I interviewed shared stories about fending off sexual harassment
by colleagues or actual cases of sexual assault in the field.
Rarely is their organization prepared to handle these issues.
While there has been some action taken on “building safe organizations” – the
focus has been preventing sexual exploitation of our beneficiaries by our
staff. But there is not sufficient attention paid to sexual harassment of our
staff by our staff or adequate support for staff that have been sexually
assaulted. There is little information in the security manuals that I have
reviewed about what medical care a survivor may need or what rights a sexual
assault survivor might have. Nor is there guidance on reporting to local
authorities, human resources or guarantees of confidentiality. Responsible
employers must be prepared to understand and deal with the fact that their
employees might become victims of sexual assault [1] and should be prepared to support them. This means
bringing the issue of sexual assault up in security trainings and sensitizing
the trainers and security personnel on how to address the issue – but not by
restricting women’s access to “dangerous areas” but by making sure female
employees are informed of the dangers, provided with information on how to
protect themselves, and given sensitive and adequate support by their
organizations in case the worst happens.
[1] Global statistics show that 1 out of 3 women has
experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault.
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