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Abstract

Surfacing in 2018, allegations against Oxfam staff regarding the cover up of sexual exploitation and abuse during their operations in Haiti, questioned the moral compass of the humanitarian aid sector. Following the earthquake in 2010, NGOs from across the globe flooded into Haiti to provide emergency relief and assistance to the affected population. Amongst them was Oxfam, arguably the leading humanitarian NGO within the sector. However, this relief effort has been tarnished by reports of the sexual exploitation and abuse committed by Oxfam staff against ‘beneficiaries’ of aid in Haiti. This dissertation explores what factors account for the prevalence of sexual exploitation and abuse within humanitarian NGO settings, which will be attained through a combination of in depth literature reviews and report analysis. The first chapter will explore the settings in which SEA is perpetrated, to gain an understanding of the social, political and legal structures that facilitate permissive environments. The second chapter will adopt a feminist lens, to identify factors that contribute to the victims of SEA by aid workers being predominantly women and girls. The third chapter will explore the perpetrators of SEA through a neo-colonial and gendered standpoint to investigate the patriarchal and hyper-masculinised organisational culture of humanitarian NGOs. The final chapter will investigate the sectors response to the prevalence of SEA committed by aid workers. The dissertation finds that an interplay of structural, organisational, community and individual factors that are underpinned by racial, gender and social inequalities account for the prevalence of SEA in humanitarian NGO settings.

Course: International Relations and Politics - BA (Hons) - C0694

Date Deposited: 2022-02-18

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13830.html