First Special Report: Follow-up: sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector: Government Response to the First Report of the of the Committee, Session 2019

This is the government's response, published 13 March 2020.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government responds to the Committee's follow-up report by stating that it recognises the challenges raised, saying it is "determined to drive progress", and giving positions of "Agree" or "Partially agree" on the recommendations that carry one.

• On the Resource and Support Hub, DFID expects it to focus on "signposting to professional services via regional hubs, rather than providing the services themselves". It plans regional hubs in Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Sudan in 2020, and the online platform will go live in Spring 2020.
• On whistle-blowing, the government agrees protection should form part of all reporting frameworks. It plans to publish, in the first half of 2020, a synthesis of main findings from the central safeguarding enhanced due diligence assessments, and says the March Summit did not agree to a systematic audit.
• On an independent ombudsman, the government "partially agrees". It says there "does not seem to be any support for an international aid ombuds" among other donors, and that the emerging consensus is to focus on accountability and support at local and national levels.
• On transparency, the government partially agrees. It says it cannot insist that non-UK NGOs and multilaterals report figures for all of their work, and that Bond is not "mandated or resourced" to require its members to publish allegation data.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error