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Strategic Evaluation of WFP's Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000158855/download/
Derived from UN and Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) standards, WFP’s strategic and policy direction on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) comes from the Executive Director’s circular on PSEA, as updated in May 2023. This complements the direction on PSEA set out in WFP’s strategic plan for 2022–2025. This strategic evaluation assessed the efforts of WFP toward PSEA from March 2017 to October 2023 to understand what has worked well, and where efforts can be further strengthened.

Overall, the evaluation found that WFP has made important steps towards meeting PSEA commitments. Even with its lean capacity, the Ethics Office has taken the agenda forward corporately, providing valuable guidance and support to focal points globally. WFP is now a key player in inter-agency PSEA platforms.

While noting these achievements, the evaluation found that delivery on PSEA commitments had been hindered by lack of prioritization and accountability, inadequate human and financial resources and limitations in the monitoring and internal feedback loops for understanding SEA prevalence and PSEA effectiveness. Consequently, WFP programming does not yet adequately assess and mitigate SEA risk across all settings and programming modalities.

The absence of consistent past investment in PSEA is only being recognized now, as WFP faces considerable operational and institutional challenges that are likely to increase its SEA risk exposure in the immediate term.