These Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are part of the OCHA Compendium of SOPs on Sexual Misconduct, hereafter the Compendium. The Compendium outlines key roles and responsibilities in preventing and responding to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) and Sexual Harassment (SH) in the context of OCHA’s operations, with reference to both OCHA staff and its implementing partners. These SOPs, as the fourth and final part of the Compendium, are designed to guide OCHA’s response to reported allegations of SEA by the personnel of an implementing partner (IP) contracted under OCHA-managed Country-based Pooled Funds (CBPFs). Their purpose is to outline the responsibilities of key actors and the steps to follow in case of SEA allegations involving personnel of IPs, and to provide guidance to CBPF Humanitarian Financing Units (HFUs) and the OCHA Heads of Office (HoOs) on how to proceed in such cases. They should be read in conjunction with the rest of the Compendium and with the Global Guidelines for CBPFs.  

The actions described in this document are to be followed in consecutive order, and all steps are to be taken in close consultation with the Oversight and Compliance Unit (OCU) at the Country-based Pooled Funds Section (CBPFS) in OCHA New York. The estimated timeline for each step and action are set in relation to the previous action in number of working days.  

These SOPs are guided by the Secretary-General’s Bulletin (ST/SGB/2003/13), the S-G’s Strategy (A/71/818), the UN Protocol on Allegations of SEA involving Implementing Partners (hereon ‘the IP Protocol’), the UN Protocol on the Provision of Assistance to Victims of SEA, and the 2019 Six Core PSEA Principles.