Muslim Aid renews its safeguarding commitments

18 October 2018 

Muslim Aid pledges to safeguarding commitments at DFID hosted international summit to tackle sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment in the aid sector   

Muslim Aid today renewed its pledge to protect the vulnerable people it supports, their wider communities and any vulnerable staff members. 

The Department of International Development’s safeguarding summit today was an opportunity for Muslim Aid to focus on its commitment to safeguarding and determination to fight abuse and exploitation in the international aid sector.  

In the wake of the international charity safeguarding crisis which blew up in February 2018, the Charity Commission and safeguarding experts pledged to improve safeguarding standards across the sector.  

DFID reached out to Muslim Aid as part of a sector wide process to provide information on a number of safeguarding issues it had dealt with over the years. Chief Executive Officer Jehangir Malik OBE attended a previous safeguarding summit on 5 March 2018, which led to today’s official commitments.  

Muslim Aid is one of the 400 members of Bond, the UK membership body for non-governmental organisations working in international development. Since the Oxfam aid scandal, Bond’s members have worked to improve their safeguarding policies and practices, modelled on the best examples from the aid and the UK domestic sector.

Along with fellow Bond members, Muslim Aid is focusing on the safety and wellbeing of children and adults, especially in vulnerable situations. Muslim Aid will not tolerate sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment and will put the voices, rights and safety of whistle-blowers, victims and survivors first.  

Muslim Aid is engaged and committed to safeguarding the vulnerable. We have: 

• Joined with 31 other organisations to sign a joint letter of commitment to improve safeguarding. 

• Using our existing systems and procedures for safeguarding, we compiled details of all cases which had been reported to Muslim Aid since 2010. Details of 122 cases were sent to DFID, of which two came under the sexual exploitation and abuse category.   

• Imtiaz Mohammed, Muslim Aid’s Director of International Programmes, has engaged in the working groups around these commitments, organised by BOND.  

• Muslim Aid is now in the process of hiring a Safeguarding Advisor and Safeguarding Officer.  

The details announced today is the result of this work, which demonstrates how the NGO sector will drive forwards consistency and leadership on safeguarding. 

The 12 commitments demonstrate that the sector is serious about improving the quality and consistency of its safeguarding practice.

The details of the 12 commitments can be found here