Many organisations have introduced complaints mechanisms or whistleblowing systems to enable communities, staff and other stakeholders to safely raise issues of sexual exploitation, abuse, harassment and abuse of power, or any other form of sexual or other forms of misconduct committed by organisational staff or associated personnel. Implemented effectively, these reporting mechanisms can help to identify problems and misconduct at an early stage prior to it escalating to larger issues.
When sensitive allegations of sexual misconduct are reported, organisations have to take appropriate action to investigate them internally. Still, it remains a challenge to prepare and conduct in-depth and confidential administrative investigations. This training conducted online and face-to-face will provide an overview on how to plan, conduct and report on internal investigations on and other forms of misconduct regarding sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH) perpetrated by staff and associated personnel and how to navigate this challenging issue
Contents
- Principles and key considerations for a survivor centred investigation
- Steps in an investigation, roles and responsibilities of stakeholders
- Preparing and risk assessing an investigation plan and interview plan
- Useful interviewing techniques for interviewing witnesses and the subject of complaint
- Interview simulation
- Preparing and drafting an investigation report and management report.
Target group
This workshop is aimed at employees of NGOs working in the development sector, who have responsibility for safeguarding, e.g. safeguarding leads or focal points, programme advisors and managers, HR managers or designated safeguarding officers.
Format
The training will be conducted in a blended-learning format and consists of one online session (half day) as well as one face-to-face session (three days) including interview simulations. After the training, participants will be engaged in self-organised group work on report writing. The sessions will be in English.
- Wednesday, May 7th: Online Session, 9 am-1 pm CET
- Tuesday May 13th - Thursday, 15th: Face to Face Sessions, each 9 am-5 pm (CET) in Berlin
- Friday, 16th - Wednesday, 21st May: Report writing (self organised group work) and submission of reports for feedback by trainer
Location
Berlin (the exact location will be announced here shortly)
Facilitator
Aneeta Williams is a human rights lawyer, an international development and humanitarian practitioner based in the UK with a passion to prevent, respond and support access to justice for vulnerable and young victims and witnesses of abuse, violence and exploitation. She has extensive international experience working with the UN, INGOs, NGOs and private sector organisations over 20 years.
Costs
Participation at this workshop is free of charge. Travel and accommodation costs must be organised and paid for by participants themselves. The training is limited in number of participants. Your registration is binding.
The VENRO guidelines for development policy project and programme work
The eight VENRO guidelines describe the common understanding of quality of VENRO's member organisations, which have committed themselves to aligning their project and programme work in the Global South with them. We offer continuous training on individual guidelines for practical implementation. This training relates to Guideline No. 2: Gender equality, sexual orientation and gender identity.
Registration
Please register for the event by by 21st April 2025. The registration period starts at 10th March 2025.
Please note that your registration is not a confirmation of participation. You will receive feedback about your admission to the course one to two weeks after your registration.
Please contact Almut Huss for further questions (a.huss(at)venro.org)