This advocacy paper seeks to reflect and progress dialogue on the connections between sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA). They are both human rights violations based on gender discrimination, intersecting with all forms of social inequalities, and are part of a continuum of violence (mainly) against women and girls and almost always committed by men. Despite these commonalities, organizations in the development and humanitarian sectors, including the United Nations, have tended to address these two forms of violence as separate and independent problems.

This publication advocates a rethinking of current approaches to addressing sexual harassment and SEA, including that centring survivor voices and understanding their common causes and dynamics is necessary for elimination.