Real Life Research Institute Africa Program (RLRI-AP) has a zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH).
We believe that all people, irrespective of their age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, or any other point of diversity, have the inherent right to be free from SEAH and any abuse of power.
We acknowledge that unequal power dynamics within our organization and in relation to the communities we serve present the risk that some people may exploit their positions of power for personal gain.
We do not tolerate any form of SEAH by any of our employees, volunteers, partners, or anyone working as a representative of RLRI-AP.
We are committed to taking a victim/survivor-centered approach and improving our safeguarding capacity as it relates to reporting, investigating, responding to, and preventing incidents of SEAH.
Roles and Responsibilities
- RLRI-AP employees and related personnel shall receive training on preventing SEAH and Safeguarding as part of their induction.
- All RLRI-AP employees and related personnel must abide by the Safeguarding Code of Conduct, which includes SEAH prevention measures.
- RLRI-AP managers shall support and develop systems that maintain an environment that is free from any form of SEAH.
- RLRI-AP shall embed good practice and SEAH prevention measures across program/ project cycles. We shall include SEAH prevention in our project designs, grant proposals, assessments, complaints, and feedback mechanisms, as well as in monitoring and evaluation.
- We shall further consider SEAH in our risk management by the following:
- Factoring in physical and online risks of SEAH to community members and reviewing our risk assessment if a SEAH-related incident is disclosed, occurs, or nearly occurs.
- Reviewing our risk assessments to see if a SEAH-related incident, near miss, or disclosure occurs.
- Regularly monitoring and updating our risk assessments where necessary.
RLRI-AP acknowledges it has a responsibility to promote safe practices to protect children, youth, and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation. We shall continue to promote a culture of shared accountability and responsibility within our organization as relates to the protection of children, youth, and vulnerable adults.
We shall strive to protect children, young people, and vulnerable adults from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury, abuse, neglect, maltreatment, and exploitation, including sexual abuse, in all areas of our operations.
All staff, volunteers, and representatives must immediately report any concerns that a child, young person, or vulnerable adult has been abused using RLRI-AP reporting procedures.