Our commitment to change in safeguarding

Bond’s members have been working to improve their safeguarding policies and practices, building on the best examples from the aid and UK domestic sector. Our commitment to change document pulls this work together and demonstrates how the NGO sector will drive forwards consistency and leadership on safeguarding.

Civil society organisations will ensure that they implement the highest standards on safeguarding, built around a survivor-centred approach and an organisational culture that prevents abuse.

Many organisations have well-developed safeguarding approaches in place and our recent work builds on that established good practice. However, driving up the consistency and quality of our practice across the board requires collective action and sector-wide solutions. This is what our 12 commitments and 34 related actions aim to achieve.

Further details of actions were updated in the commitments document in October 2020 to reflect progress since the commitments were first made.

We are driving change in safeguarding in four areas:

• Survivor support and enhanced accountability
• Cultural change
• Minimum standards
• Organisational capacity and capability

View the commitments

This set of case studies has been produced by Bond and its members to share how NGOs address the complex issues or difficult considerations around doing safeguarding well. These case studies complement the sector’s commitment to change in safeguarding, and demonstrate how the NGO sector drives forwards consistency and leadership on safeguarding.

Bond has been connecting with its peer platforms across the globe to share the work UK INGOs have been doing. These commitments have been endorsed by the following international civil society networks:

Interaction: “The UK NGO Commitments align well with InterAction’s CEO Pledge, and reinforce a sectoral commitment to developing practices and policies that will not only protect our staff, but also the communities we serve.”

Globalt Fokus: “The Danish NGOs organized under the national platform, Globalt Fokus, strongly supports the overall message and commitment outlined in the statements from the British NGOs under Bond.”

CONCORD: “We need to take concrete actions to support victims and survivors and tackle the underlying gender inequality and power imbalances.”

VENRO: “With this endorsement, we express our intent to support a zero-tolerance approach regarding sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment in international development and humanitarian work.”

CCIC: “[w]e look forward to working with Bond and other national platforms to identify areas of collaboration and advance common goals.”

Hub Cymru Africa: “These principles align with our core values of dignity, respect, transparency and inclusivity and create a foundation for the goals that we and others in Wales strive to achieve.”

Scotland’s International Development Alliance: “The commitments align closely with work that Scotland’s International Development Alliance, supported by the Scottish Government, has been conducting to ensure that our members have the information and support they need to help them put in place best practices in safeguarding.”

CADA: “We fully endorse the commitments and urge all our members to implement them as fully as possible in their own work.”