During my week in Parliament I have been working very closely with my colleagues on the recent allegations surrounding Oxfam’s conduct in Haiti and about safeguarding policies more generally within international development organisations.
I am sure a lot of you will have heard about the sexual abuse claims surrounding the work of Oxfam and other Aid organisations. As a consequence of some of the recent allegations, the International Development committee of which I am member held an emergency session on Tuesday were we heard from Oxfam, Save the Children and the Department for International Development (DFID). As a committee we wanted to establish how much Oxfam knew about the recent scandal, in which vulnerable women were sexually exploited.
In my role as a member of the International Development Committee, I asked about the extent of a potential cover up within Oxfam and I also wanted to hear if the representatives from the charity Save the Children thought this problem was systemic across the aid sector, and whether the sector was likely to attract predatory individuals. It was also important to establish what, Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary at DFID, and his Department knew and what steps were being taken in light of these allegations. If you are interested in watching the session I would encourage you to visit www.parliament.tv
I would like to reassure my constituents that the Select Committee will be conducting a full inquiry into sexual misconduct in the aid sector in the wake of the scandal. Whilst we can never undo the damage which has been done to the victims of this abuse, hopefully we can get to the bottom of the story. I hope our findings will lead to widespread reform and better safeguards being put in place across the aid sector, not just at Oxfam, and help to ensure that this never happens again.
As ever, if you wish to contact me regarding any issues raised in this article please do not hesitate to contact me on 01702 616 135 or email me at [email protected]