In October 2017, Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, announced a zero-tolerance policy for aid organisations. It followed revelations of sexual harassment and use of prostitutes by the staff of major NGOs. Mordaunt said that the Department for International Development (DFID) would cut funding to any organisations which failed in safeguarding or financial probity.
This was more than a box-ticking exercise. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a whistleblowing hotline,” Mordaunt told the Andrew Marr show last February. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve got good safeguarding practices in place. If the moral leadership at the top of the organisation isn’t there, we cannot have you as a partner.”
