£30M OXFAM AID TAP TURNED OFF
Handouts are blocked until charity proves it’s changed, says minister
ANY new Government funding for Oxfam was dramatically stopped last night by the International Development Secretary following the sex exploitation scandal.
After a week of shocking revelations, Penny Mordaunt said the charity would receive no new UK foreign aid until it could prove it met the ‘high standards’ she expected.
Miss Mordaunt said that while there were ‘hundreds of good, brave and compassionate people working for Oxfam’, they had been ‘poorly served’ by the charity’s leadership.
The move is a huge blow to Oxfam, which last year received around £30million from the Government, and will pile pressure on its beleaguered chief executive Mark Goldring.
It follows a meeting this week when the charity attempted to reassure Miss Mordaunt that it had a grip on the scandal, which has led to ramifications through the entire aid sector.
Oxfam has been rocked by the worst week in its history following reports of sexual exploitation by aid workers in Haiti following the earthquake there in 2010. On another dramatic day yesterday: New claims emerged from an anonymous Oxfam worker that she was twice sexually and physically assaulted by colleagues in Haiti and South Sudan.
The head of Oxfam International conceded that she couldn’t guarantee there were no other sexual predators working for the charity.
Haiti’s president called for investigations into other aid organisations which went to the country after the quake.
2011 Oxfam internal has vowed investigation to publish into the staff involved in sexual and other misconduct in the country. It said that the names of the men involved have already been shared with the Haitian International Oxfam seek further yesterday authorities. with Government the said Development, Department Following it would funding. discussions not for agreed Miss Mordaunt to withdraw said: from ‘Oxfam bidding has for any new UK Government funding until DFID is satisfied that they can meet the high standards we expect of our partners. ‘We have been very clear that we will not work with any organisation that does not live up to the high standards on safeguarding and protection that we require.’ In an attempt to address the crisis yesterday the head of Oxfam International, Winnie Byanyima, announced an independent commission to review the charity’s culture and practices.
But she conceded that she could not guarantee that there are no more sexual predators working for the charity, although it would ‘build a new culture that doesn’t tolerate that behaviour’.
She described the allegations as a ‘stain’ on the charity ‘that will shame us for years’.
Last night a former Oxfam worker told the BBC she had been abused by colleagues in Haiti and South Sudan in 2010. Describing one assault, she told the BBC: ‘He literally just pinned me up against the wall. It was groping me, grabbing me, kissing me and I was just trying to shove him off.’
She said he ‘got mad’ when she succeeded and threw a glass at her. Later, she had to travel with him and he attacked her again and her roommate had to intervene, she said.
The same worker was also assaulted at a New Year’s Eve party in South Sudan, also in 2010. ‘I went into my room I was starting to undress and go to sleep and he just walked in, shoved me on the bed, tried to rip my clothes,’ she said.
Haiti’s president last night said the Oxfam case was only ‘the visible part of the iceberg’ and called for investigations into Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, and other aid organisations. Jovenel Moise said: ‘There are other NGOs (non-governmental organisations) in the same situation, but they hide the information internally.
‘For example, Doctors Without Borders had to repatriate about 17 people for misconduct which was not explained.’
Geneva-based Doctors Without Borders said it was looking into his comments.
Singer Tallia Storm has become the latest celebrity supporter to quit Oxfam over the scandal, following Archbishop Desmond Tutu and actress Minnie Driver.