Working overseas

When you work overseas, you must carry out all the same safeguarding practices that you would in England and meet any extra requirements of the country you’re working in.

• You should follow the Core Humanitarian Standard on quality and accountability and/or the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s minimum operating standards on preventing sexual exploitation and abuse (pdf) for overseas humanitarian and development work.
• You should look for specific resources to help you plan for the challenges of working overseas. BOND, the UK network for organisations working in international development, has published a safeguarding resources collection, which is a good place to start. This includes a toolkit for handling complaints and a guide for INGOs on managing governance.
• You should review the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) standards, guidance for partners and information on how to report a concern relating to sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment in the international aid sector. This includes standards for all organisations supported by FCDO and for organisations delivering programmes that will involve them coming into contact directly or indirectly with children.
• The Safeguarding Resource and Support Hub (RSH) aims to support organisations in the aid sector to strengthen their safeguarding policy and practice against sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment. Their open-access platform bringing together quality assured guidance, tools, support and research on safeguarding, serving any organisation working in the international aid sector.