Best Practice Guide Inter-Agency Community-Based Complaint Mechanisms Protection against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

This Guide gives instructions on how to set up and run an inter-agency community-based complaint mechanism to handle reports of sexual abuse and exploitation by humanitarian aid workers. A Community-Based Complaint Mechanism (CBCM) is a system rooted in community input so that the structure is both culturally and gender-sensitive, maximizing its safety and effectiveness. The primary concern of the mechanism is to aid known and potential SEA survivors, facilitate SEA reporting and allegation referrals, and to fulfill a prevention function through training and awareness-raising. The inter-agency aspect entails that the mechanism can receive complaints against actors from multiple organizations, and that the complaints will be referred to the proper unit within each organization for follow-up. Altogether, the CBCM is a relevant and efficient means of comprehensively responding to SEA in an emergency response operation.