The Foreign Service Control Unit is point of contact for following up reports of sexual abuse in grant management control

In their letter of 16 February 2018 to the partner organisations, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of International Development state that partners in development assistance projects receiving funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Norad are expected to take responsibility for preventing sexual harassment, violence and sexual abuse within the aid sector, and to have systems and ethical guidelines in place to follow up reports of such incidents.

The FSCU is the point of contact for reports of sexual harassment, violence and abuse in projects granted funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and expects project partners to report incidents of this kind.

Note that cases involving sexual exploitation and sexual abuse will be assessed in the same way as reports of financial irregularities. The primary focus is on claims of abuse towards the target group for the aid project committed by the actors receiving funding.

Harassment of employees within the organisation itself will not normally be classified as a misuse of Norwegian funds, and it is the responsibility of the organisation to prevent and deal with such matters. However, the FSCU would like to receive information about these cases to ensure that our partners have established appropriate routines and partner assessment procedures.

All Norwegian and international organisations receiving funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are asked to comply with this.