Humanitarian Assistance: Protecting Refugee Women and Girls	 
Remains a Significant Challenge (23-MAY-03, GAO-03-663).	 
                                                                 
Women and children refugees, who comprise 80 percent of the	 
estimated 12 million refugees worldwide, are among the world's	 
most vulnerable populations. They are subject to gender-based	 
violence, including physical harm, rape, and unequal access to	 
humanitarian assistance. GAO was asked to (1) assess efforts by  
the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to protect	 
refugees, especially with regard to women and girls; (2)	 
determine what steps U.N. and international organizations have	 
taken to prevent sexual exploitation of refugee women by	 
humanitarian workers; and (3) describe U.S. government efforts to
support adequate protection for vulnerable populations. 	 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-03-663 					        
    ACCNO:   A06963						        
  TITLE:     Humanitarian Assistance: Protecting Refugee Women and    
Girls Remains a Significant Challenge				 
     DATE:   05/23/2003 
  SUBJECT:   Best practices					 
	     International organizations			 
	     Refugees						 
	     Sex crimes 					 
	     Sexual abuse					 
	     Strategic planning 				 
	     Women						 
	     Children						 

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GAO-03-663

Report to the Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Foreign Relations, U.
S. Senate

United States General Accounting Office

GAO

May 2003 HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

Protecting Refugee Women and Girls Remains a Significant Challenge

GAO- 03- 663

UNHCR and international organizations have developed guidelines, best
practices, and other measures to improve protection of refugee women and
girls. However, weaknesses in its staffing process and training limit the
effectiveness of these measures. UNHCR lacks a formal strategic workforce
plan that links the organization*s objectives, resources, and staffing;
its staff assignment and rotation policies have resulted in extended
vacancies at key protection posts; and it provides little practical
training for most UNHCR and implementing partner staff on protection
concepts and techniques. UNHCR could also make better use of partnering
arrangements with nongovernmental and international organizations to boost
its protection capacity.

In response to allegations in 2001 of sexual abuse and exploitation of
women and girl refugees by relief workers and peacekeepers, the U. N. and
other international organizations introduced policies and procedures to
address the problem, such as codes of conduct and mechanisms to report and
act on new allegations of abuse of power. While these efforts have raised
awareness among workers in refugee settings, international organizations

face continuing sexual exploitation of women by relief workers, and the
issue remains a real and significant problem.

The U. S. government, through the Department of State, supports the
protection of refugees and other vulnerable populations primarily through
its funding to international organizations. It is also a strong advocate
at the United Nations, within international organizations, and at the
country level to increase protection efforts.

Burundian Refugees in Tanzania Women and children refugees, who comprise
80 percent of the estimated 12 million refugees

worldwide, are among the world*s most vulnerable populations. They are
subject to gender- based violence, including physical harm,

rape, and unequal access to humanitarian assistance. GAO was asked to (1)
assess efforts by the U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to
protect refugees, especially with regard to women and girls; (2) determine

what steps U. N. and international organizations have taken to prevent
sexual exploitation of refugee women by humanitarian workers; and (3)
describe U. S. government efforts to support adequate protection for
vulnerable populations.

GAO recommends that the Secretary of State work to reform UNHCR*s staffing
system, expand protection training, encourage protection partnering, and
maintain focus on combating sexual exploitation of women and girls. State
agreed with our

recommendations. UNHCR disagreed with fundamentally reforming its staffing
system, stating that better instruments for assigning staff and managing
vacancies are sufficient remedies. We maintain that UNHCR needs a
strategic workforce plan and better

staff assignment and rotation policies to ensure that certain vacant duty
stations are filled.

www. gao. gov/ cgi- bin/ getrpt? GAO- 03- 663. To view the full product,
including the scope and methodology, click on the link above. For more
information, contact David B. Gootnick, (202) 512- 3149, gootnickd@ gao.
gov. Highlights of GAO- 03- 663, a report to the

Ranking Minority Member, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

May 2003

HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

Protecting Refugee Women and Girls Remains a Significant Challenge

Page i GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance Letter 1 Results in Brief 2
Background 4 Recent Action Raises Awareness, but Refugee Women and Girls
Continue to Face Violence 7 Despite Remedial Actions, Sexual Exploitation
and Abuse of

Power Still a Problem 22 U. S. Government Funds International
Organizations* Protection Activities 26 Conclusions 28 Recommendations for
Executive Action 29 Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 30 Appendix I Scope
and Methodology 34

Appendix II Catalogue of Refugee Protection Reports 36 Bibliography 40
Appendix III Comments from Department of State 43

Appendix IV Comments from UNHCR 46

Appendix V GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments 58 GAO Contacts 58
Acknowledgments 58 Tables

Table 1: UNHCR*s Approved Regular and Supplementary Budgets, Actual Funds
Received, and Percentage Difference, 1998- 2002 11 Table 2: Protection
Officer Vacancies by Region 16 Table 3: State Department*s Bureau of
Population, Refugees, and

Migration Contributions to UNHCR, United Nations Contents

Page ii GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance Children*s Fund, and the
International Committee of the Red Cross, 1998- 2002 26 Figures

Figure 1: Burundian Refugee Women 6 Figure 2: Registration of New Refugee
Arrivals in Tanzania 8 Figure 3: Distribution of Protection Officer Posts
and Assisted Populations in High- Risk Countries 14 Figure 4: Refugee
*Temporary Shelters* in Thailand 21 Figure 5: A Karen Women*s Committee
Income- Generating Activity, Mae La, Thailand, 2003 24 This is a work of
the U. S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the

United States. It may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety
without further permission from GAO. It may contain copyrighted graphics,
images or other materials. Permission from the copyright holder may be
necessary should you wish to reproduce copyrighted materials separately
from GAO*s product.

Page 1 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance May 23, 2003 The Honorable
Joseph Biden Ranking Minority Member

Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate

Dear Senator Biden: Women and children refugees, who comprise 80 percent
of the estimated 12 million refugees worldwide, are among the world*s most
vulnerable populations. Violence against women and girls has historically
been, and continues to be, prevalent among refugees, including those
fleeing current conflicts in Burma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
and Liberia. Gender- based violence harm perpetuated against a person
because of gender- based power inequities is aimed primarily at women and
girls. In refugee settings, this violence can take the form of
intimidation, physical

harm, sexual abuse including rape, and unequal access to humanitarian
assistance. Although no systematic data exist about the magnitude of the
problem, reports by numerous international organizations over the past two
decades demonstrate that sexual abuse of refugee women and girls is
pervasive and present in almost all refugee settings. Reports out of West
Africa in 2001 cited sexual abuse and exploitation of refugee women and
girls by relief workers from international and nongovernmental
organizations and by peacekeepers* the very people charged with protecting
refugees. The U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the lead
international organization charged with providing protection and
assistance to refugees and other vulnerable populations. Because of your
concerns about the protection of this vulnerable

population and the allegations of relief workers* and peacekeepers* abuses
of power, you asked us to (1) assess efforts by UNHCR and its implementing
partners to protect refugee women and girls from genderbased violence; (2)
determine what steps the United Nations and international organizations
have taken to prevent relief workers* and peacekeepers* abuse of women and
girls; and (3) describe the steps the U. S. government takes to protect
refugees and other vulnerable persons.

To assess the efforts taken to protect refugee women and girls, we
conducted fieldwork in refugee camps and surrounding areas in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Thailand.
Collectively, these four nations have more than 1 million refugees, face

United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548

Page 2 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance protracted refugee crises in
which refugees and other vulnerable populations are under imminent threat
of physical and sexual violence,

and were recommended as representative case study countries by State and
think tank officials. We assessed the adequacy of international mechanisms
to identify and provide protection to refugees from the time of their
initial flight to their arrival and settlement in refugee camps to

repatriation home. In addition to extensive interviews with refugee women
and girls, refugee leaders, and camp management, we supplemented our
field- level information with meetings with U. S. government, United
Nations, Red Cross Movement, peacekeeping, and nongovernmental
organization officials at the headquarter, regional, and country levels.
In our work with UNHCR, we met with officials from 19 different offices
and examined extensive staffing data* including vacancies, duty station
categories, and worldwide distribution of staff. To assess U. N. and
international organizations* response to reports of abuse by staff and
peacekeepers, we reviewed a series of remedial action plans recently
issued by U. N. and other international organizations and assessed how

these plans were being implemented in refugee camps. We also obtained
independent perspectives from recognized experts within the human rights,
think tank, and refugee advocacy communities on U. N. and U. S. efforts to
provide refugee protection. (For a more complete description of our scope
and methodology, see app. I.)

Over the last decade, UNHCR and its implementing partners have boosted
their efforts to protect refugee women and girls from sexual abuse and
violence by creating policies, best practice guidelines, and programs to
protect this population. At the field level, gender based violence
initiatives are targeting vulnerable persons* such as female- headed
households*

and providing them with secure shelter and access to services. Despite
these gains, shortfalls in UNHCR*s resources and its weak management in
staffing and training limit the effectiveness of measures taken. Regarding

resources, failure of donors to fulfill funding pledges forced UNHCR to
make budget cuts of $73 million* nearly 10 percent of its regular budget*
in 2002. These cuts led to a reduction in protection programs aimed at
women and girls. Regarding staffing issues, UNHCR does not have a
strategic workforce plan* a plan that links the organization*s objectives,
resources, and staffing* to maximize the physical protection of refugees.
Consequently, the number of protection staff in some high- risk countries
is insufficient and impedes protection efforts. Furthermore, UNHCR*s staff

assignments and rotations are voluntary and have resulted in extended
Results in Brief

Page 3 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance vacancies at key protection
posts. In Tanzania, for example, UNHCR has 1 junior protection officer
responsible for the physical protection needs of

155,000 refugees in 5 camps. Regarding training, we found that most UNHCR
staff and staff within nongovernmental organizations that serve as their
implementing partners in camps have not received practical training on
protection concepts and techniques, such as how to identify and

address sexual violence cases. Finally, we found that UNHCR*s implementing
partners and other international organizations have protection
capabilities that provide significant opportunities for partnering
arrangements to fill gaps in refugee protection.

In response to reports at the end of 2001 alleging sexual abuse and
exploitation of women and girl refugees by relief workers and
peacekeepers, the United Nations conducted an in- depth investigation into

the allegations, and international organizations adopted codes of conduct
and instituted training programs for their employees. During our fieldwork
in numerous refugee camps, we found there was high awareness of the
ethical and professional conduct expected of relief workers and
peacekeepers, and there were established mechanisms to report and act upon
any new allegations of abuse of power. Despite these efforts,
international organizations still face continuing sexual exploitation of
refugees by relief workers. Although the in- depth investigation could not
verify specific charges of abuse, it found other cases and concluded that
sexual exploitation by relief workers was a real problem. During our

fieldwork, we observed officials from UNHCR and nongovernmental
organizations investigating new cases of sexual exploitation and abuse by
workers in Tanzania and Sierra Leone. Based upon extensive interviews with
relief workers and refugee women, our observations, and review of 12 years
of reports, refugee women and girls remain extremely vulnerable to sexual
exploitation and abuse of power due to (1) the high level of

poverty among refugees, (2) limited monitoring of camp situations by
international relief workers, and (3) cultural attitudes on the part of
some relief workers and refugee- led camp management. According to relief
and human rights experts, continued high- level management focus on

preventing exploitation is necessary so attention does not wane before it
becomes part of organizations* institutional culture.

The U. S. government*s role in protecting refugees and other vulnerable
populations has been primarily through its funding of international
organizations. In 2002, the Department of State provided UNHCR and the
International Committee of the Red Cross* the two key international
organizations mandated to provide protection* with $265 million and $124
million, respectively. Furthermore, the Department of State in 2002 funded

Page 4 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance a number of small grants for
projects targeted to address specific protection problems in countries.
During our fieldwork, we observed

several of these protection projects* including some covering sexual and
gender- based violence prevention* that addressed gaps in protection in
Sierra Leone and Tanzania. The U. S. Agency for International Development
(USAID), through its Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance

and Office of Transition Initiatives, indirectly contributes to refugee
protection efforts. Finally, in addition to financial support, the U. S.
government plays an active role advocating for the protection of refugees
and vulnerable populations at the United Nations, within international
organizations, and at the country level.

This report makes recommendations that the Secretary of State work with U.
N. member states to address the inadequacies in the UNHCR staffing system,
expand protection training programs, encourage the development of
protection partnering arrangements, and maintain international
organizations* focus on combating sexual exploitation of refugee women and
girls.

In comments on a draft of this report, the Department of State said we
accurately reflect the reality of current efforts to provide protection to
refugee women and girls, noting that shortfalls in funding,
prioritization, and an ineffective staff management system hamper UNHCR*s
protection efforts. UNHCR disagreed with our recommendation to
fundamentally reform its staffing system, stating that improvements to
instruments for assigning staff and managing vacancies, as well as more
predictable donor support, would be sufficient to address these problems.
The problems in UNHCR*s staffing system have been long documented and
improvements aimed at selected aspects of the system have not been
effective. In our view, therefore, creation of a strategic workforce plan
and the development of a staff assignment and rotation policy are
necessary to

address the protection needs of refugees in high- risk and difficult duty
locations. A more detailed discussion of UNHCR*s comments and our response
is included at the end of this report.

UNHCR is the lead agency in a network of international organizations
active in the protection and assistance of refugees and other populations
that are vulnerable in war and conflict settings. Other major participants
include the Red Cross Movement, the World Food Program, and the United
Nations Children*s Fund, as well as nongovernmental organizations such as
the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children. Established in
1950 to help resettle European refugees in the aftermath of Background

Page 5 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance World War II, UNHCR is guided
by the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of
Refugees, both of which detail refugees* rights. 1 UNHCR*s primary purpose
as mandated by the United Nations is to

provide international protection for refugees by ensuring that their basic
human rights are respected. Further, UNHCR is to ensure that individuals
seeking asylum are given access to refugee status determination

procedures, are not refused entry at borders, and are protected from
forced return to a situation of danger. UNHCR*s policies, strategic
objectives, and budget are set by its Executive Committee, which meets
annually to set the organization*s priorities and direction. (Fig. 1
depicts Burundian refugee women who told us of their protection concerns
in the Kasulu refugee camp in western Tanzania.)

1 Additional international instruments underpinning the rights and
guarantees relevant to the protection of refugee women and girls include
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women, ratified by the United Nations in 1979; the Declaration on the
Elimination of Violence Against Women, adopted by the U. N. General

Assembly in 1993; and the subsequent Global Platform for Action, adopted
at the Beijing Fourth Conference on Women in 1995; U. N. Security Council
Resolution 1325 (2000); and Guidelines on International Protection:
Gender- related persecution (2002).

Page 6 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance Figure 1: Burundian Refugee
Women

Factors inherent in armed conflict situations have changed the context in
which UNHCR and other relief organizations provide assistance and
protection to refugees and other vulnerable populations. In these types of
situations, the nature of refugee and displacement flows has changed from
persons fleeing organized conflict between states to an environment of

civil war in which armed state and rebel groups purposely target civilian
populations. The danger of operating in conflict zones and the personal
security risks to relief workers are now major limitations to involvement
in protection matters. For example, from 1997 through 2001, 106 relief

workers were killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan, Angola, Rwanda,
and Sudan. Even upon arrival at a refugee or displacement camp, women and
girls remain vulnerable to violence from the local community, combatants
who use the camp as a rest and relaxation base, and other refugees. In
addition, some governments, such as Burma, block international
organizations* access to their vulnerable populations, thus Changing
Nature of

Refugee Protection

Page 7 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance hampering protection
activities. (See app. II for a listing of U. N. reports that cite sexual
violence against women.)

In response to the changing nature of the refugee context, humanitarian
organizations in 1996 reexamined the legal, practical, and policy issues
relevant to protection. Policy documents that emerged from this review
defined protection as actions aimed at obtaining full respect for the
rights of individuals by (1) preventing abuse; (2) restoring adequate
living conditions subsequent to a pattern of abuse; and (3) fostering a
social, cultural, institutional, and legal environment conducive to
respect for the rights of the individual. 2 For the purposes of this
report, we focus on the physical dimensions of protecting refugees,
especially women and girls.

Over the last few years, the international community has boosted
protection of women and girl refugees from sexual abuse and violence
through international conventions, new standards and guidelines, and
increased programs on sexual and gender- based violence. However, UNHCR
has faced heavy budget cuts because of shortfalls in contributions from
international donors, and these cuts have directly impacted funding for
gender- based protection programs. In addition, UNHCR lacks a strategic
workforce plan linking its mission to its staffing system, which has led
to insufficient protection staff in some high- risk countries.
Furthermore, most UNHCR staff and those of their implementing partners
have not been trained in protection concepts and techniques. We also

found that UNHCR has opportunities to partner with other international
organizations that it could use more effectively to increase protection of
refugees.

Over the last decade, UNHCR and its implementing partners have advanced
the protection needs of refugee women and girls through a number of
mechanisms, including the development of UNHCR Policy on Refugee Women
(1990) 3 and Sexual Violence Against Refugees:

2 Workshop on Protection of Human Rights and Humanitarian Organizations:
Doing Something and Doing It Well, report of the workshop held at the
International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, Switzerland, January
2001.

3 UNHCR Policy on Refugee Women recognized that protection needs of men
and women differ significantly and emphasized the importance of
mainstreaming women*s protection needs into all protection and assistance
activities. Recent Action Raises

Awareness, but Refugee Women and Girls Continue to Face Violence

UNHCR Has Taken Action to Improve Protection but Results Are Mixed

Page 8 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance Guidelines on Prevention and
Response (1995). 4 In addition, during our fieldwork in Sierra Leone and
Tanzania, we observed UNHCR protection

activities that identified vulnerable persons upon their initial arrival
in their country of asylum* such as female- headed households and
unaccompanied minors* provided them with secure shelter, and assigned them
social service staff for continued assistance and monitoring. (Fig. 2

depicts a group of new refugee arrivals in Tanzania at a border reception
center being registered by UNHCR staff.)

Figure 2: Registration of New Refugee Arrivals in Tanzania

Throughout 2001, UNHCR sponsored a dialogue with refugee women that
focused on their unique protection vulnerabilities and concerns. As a
result, in 2002 the High Commissioner established five commitments to

4 Sexual Violence Against Refugees: Guidelines on Prevention and Response
outlined practical steps and provided basic advice on preventing and
responding to sexual violence, including the associated key legal,
medical, and psychosocial issues.

Page 9 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance improve protection of and
assistance to refugee women and establish a link among gender equality,
the advancement of women, and the

protection of refugees. Based on our fieldwork and discussions with UNHCR
and relief officials, we found that UNHCR has had mixed results in its
efforts to implement the commitments and has not established mechanisms
for their monitoring.

The High Commissioner*s five commitments to refugee women cover the
following areas:

 Sexual and gender- based violence programs. UNHCR committed to develop
comprehensive country- level strategies to address sexual and gender-
based violence. The sexual and gender- based violence programs UNHCR has
set up in recent years have increased awareness in both men and women. In
our fieldwork, we observed sexual and gender- based violence programs in
various camps. In Sierra Leone and Thailand, refugee women were attending
gender awareness workshops and were active in monitoring their camps for
incidents of sexual violence and assisting victims. In Tanzania, women
participated in a firewood collection project designed to protect women
and girls when they are outside of camps collecting firewood and very
vulnerable to sexual assault. We also observed prevention and response
strategies in place. In Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and Thailand, for example,
refugee women told us that the camp

gender- based violence centers and programs raised their awareness of the
problem, informed them of their rights, and provided a practical means to
get help.

 Food distribution. In response to women*s difficulties in obtaining
their rations when distribution is controlled by male- dominated camp
committees or made directly to male heads of households without women*s
participation, UNHCR pledged to ensure that refugee women participate
directly and indirectly in the management and distribution of food and
nonfood items. At the sites we visited, we observed that women were
generally represented in food distribution programs. In Tanzania, at least
50 percent of the food distribution was handled by women, although
participation levels remain under target in Sierra Leone and Thailand.

 Camp management. To ensure that women*s concerns are heard and acted
upon, the High Commissioner committed that 50 percent of refugee camp
management representatives would be women. Our fieldwork showed that
women*s involvement in camp leadership positions varied, partly due to
cultural barriers in traditionally patriarchal societies. In Sierra Leone
and Tanzania, camp officials and refugee women told us that women were
very active, representing nearly 50 percent of the camp High
Commissioner*s

Commitments to Refugee Women

Page 10 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance leadership positions. In the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and Thailand, however, we learned that
women are finding it more difficult to

overcome cultural barriers to their participation in camp committees. 
Registration of women. UNHCR committed to individually register all

refugee women and provide them with relevant documentation to ensure their
security, freedom of movement, and access to essential services in order
to alleviate their dependence on men. During our fieldwork, we found that
UNHCR is generally not individually registering women. Based upon our
observations in Sierra Leone and Tanzania and on UNHCR*s own reports,
UNHCR is continuing its practice of designating males as head of
households.

 Sanitary material. The lack of sanitary materials has negative health,
social, economic, and psychological implications for women. As a result,
the High Commissioner committed to making the provision of sanitary
materials standard practice in all UNHCR assistance programs. The
organization is finding this commitment difficult to fulfill, due to a
lack of funds and commitment to the issue by some staff and implementing
partners. A 2000- 2001 UNHCR survey found that the provision of sanitary
materials was inconsistent in terms of quantity, quality, method, and
frequency of distribution. In May 2002, a State Department team also noted
that the distribution of sanitary supplies covers only 40 percent of the
relevant population in central Africa. In Sierra Leone and Tanzania, we
learned that in some camps, a lack of funds allowed for the procurement
and distribution of sanitary materials only to school- age girls.

UNHCR*s protection efforts are constrained by recurring budgetary
shortfalls. UNHCR*s Executive Committee, comprised of 61 member states,
approves and supervises UNHCR*s annual work plan and approves its budget.
The approved budget is based on pledges of support from the executive
committee members themselves and other donor governments. However, in
recent years donor governments have failed to meet their funding
commitments. 5 In 2002, UNHCR had to cut $73 million from its regular
budget* nearly 10 percent because of unfulfilled donor

5 Unlike other U. N. system organizations, UNHCR*s budget is not based on
assessed contributions from member states, but is voluntary. The U. S.
government annually contributes 25 percent of UNHCR*s approved budget.
Budget Shortfalls Inhibit

Protection Efforts

Page 11 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance contributions. Since 1998
UNHCR has had to operate with an average 11 percent shortfall in its
regular budget. (Table 1 shows UNHCR*s regular and supplementary budgets
and actual funds available.)

Table 1: UNHCR*s Approved Regular and Supplementary Budgets, Actual Funds
Received, and Percentage Difference, 1998- 2002

Dollars in millions Year Regular budget Funds

available Percentage difference Supplementary

budget a Funds available Percentage

difference

1998 460 384 -17% 609 662 +9% 1999 b 437 385 -12 815 782 -4 2000 854 780
-9 102 77 -25 2001 791 730 -8 108 146 +36 2002 802 729 -9 228 218 -4

Source: UNHCR. a UNHCR*s supplementary budget consists of budgets
authorized by the High Commissioner on an ad hoc basis for new situations
that arise after the meeting of the Executive Committee. These budgets are
exclusively funded from earmarked contributions and cannot be transferred
to cover shortfalls in

the regular budget. b Due to the introduction of a new budget structure in
2000, subsequent regular and supplementary

budget numbers are not directly comparable with those in 1998 and 1999.

According to UNHCR program documents, budget shortfalls have forced the
organization to reduce the scope of refugee operations and cut some
protection activities altogether. For example,

 the Refugee Women*s Unit cut field missions that were to support refugee
women*s registration and documentation, as well as food distribution and
camp management;

 newly arrived Liberian refugee women were forced to reside in
overcrowded communal shelters;  refugee registration programs in Iran
were suspended; and  the number of protection officers monitoring the
movements of refugees across international borders in Pakistan was cut.

UNHCR lacks a strategic workforce plan that links the organization*s
mission with its allocation of staff in the field. The organization*s
staff assignment system and rotation policy leave numerous vacancies in
key posts. Stopgap staffing mechanisms UNHCR uses to address emergency
Flawed Staffing System

Undermines UNHCR*s Protection Mandate

Page 12 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance situations are intended only
to address short- term emergencies and can lead to additional problems.
Thus the number of protection staff is

insufficient in many high- risk refugee situations and the organization is
struggling to meet this population*s protection needs.

At the end of 2002, UNHCR had 1,301 professional staff, including 402 (31
percent) in headquarters and 899 (69 percent) serving in the field. The
professional staff carries out UNHCR*s core mandate of protecting

refugees and the organization*s 11 strategic objectives, such as improving
the physical protection of refugees and monitoring their safety and
wellbeing. Of these professional staff, UNHCR*s 320 protection officers
have primary responsibility to protect refugees and other people of
concern to the agency, although UNHCR*s field officers and community
service officers (who are responsible for general management and
assistance functions) also have protection duties, such as observing and
reporting on potential problems.

However, according to the Deputy High Commissioner and the Director of
UNHCR*s Human Resources, the current process for managing human resources
does not fully link the organization*s objectives, budgetary resources,
and staffing. Currently, UNHCR*s process for allocating staff positions is
largely based on available resources and broad operational plans rather
than the protection requirements of refugees, according to UNHCR human
resource officials. For example, in 2002, UNHCR*s Africa bureau and the
Department for International Protection conducted an assessment of the
protection staffing requirements in Africa and

determined that 117 additional protection positions were needed. Due to
funding constraints, however, only 21 additional positions were created.
According to numerous relief and human rights officials, including some in
UNHCR, current UNHCR staffing levels in Africa are insufficient relative
to the protection caseload there.

Related to the lack of a strategic staffing process, UNHCR does not
conduct a global risk assessment of the threat level to refugees to help
determine the number and distribution of all posts that could best protect
refugees. Though determining minimum protection standards and optimal

distribution of posts is outside the scope of this review, our analysis of
high- risk countries found that UNHCR*s distribution of protection posts
is UNHCR Lacks a Workforce

Strategy

Page 13 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance not consistent with the risk
level and the caseload of the refugee setting. 6 Specifically, high- risk
countries in Africa have 55 percent of the protection posts but nearly 80
percent of the assisted refugee population. Conversely,

high- risk countries in Europe have 22 percent of the protection posts but
only 4 percent of UNHCR*s assisted refugee population. Furthermore, nearly
60 percent of the protection posts in low- risk countries are in Europe
and serve less than 30 percent of the population at this risk level. While
protection officers in low- risk countries in Europe play an important
role in influencing governments regarding asylum law, the bulk of their
work focuses on legal issues as opposed to the more immediate need of
physical protection. Figure 3 shows high- risk countries and the
distribution of protection officer posts and refugees within each region.

6 UNHCR does not formally designate risk levels for refugees. The World
Bank has developed a database for measuring risk and governance; it
includes 160 countries and is based on information from sources such as
Standard and Poors and the World Economic Forum. We used political
stability/ violence measurements from this database to identify countries
of high risk (Daniel Kaufmann, Aart Kraay, and Pablo Zoido- Lobaton,
"Governance Matters II: Updated Indicators for 2000- 01*), World Bank
Policy Research Department Working Paper (Washington, D. C.: 2002).

Page 14 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance Figure 3: Distribution of
Protection Officer Posts and Assisted Populations in High- Risk Countries

Page 16 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance Protection experts
acknowledge that a visible field presence of staff is one of the most
effective means of preventing harm to refugees and other

vulnerable persons. However, since the mid- 1990s, UNHCR has identified
staff vacancies, particularly in duty stations that already function with
minimal staff, as negatively affecting its ability to fulfill its mandate.
UNHCR staffing data in late 2002 indicated that 20 percent of its 320
protection positions were vacant. Table 2 shows protection vacancies as of
October 2002.

Table 2: Protection Officer Vacancies by Region Source: UNHCR. a Total
posts include an additional 23 positions at headquarters.

The Africa region had almost half of all protection vacancies, including
all the protection vacancies UNHCR is chronically unable to fill. We
observed vacancies in key protection situations during our fieldwork. For
example, in Tanzania*s Kibondo camps, two protection officer posts were
vacant, leaving only one junior protection officer to cover 155,000
refugees. We also observed that vacancies led to significant protection
problems for refugee women and girls in and around the African Great Lakes
region (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and
Rwanda) and West Africa (Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast).
The lack of sufficient staff resulted in long delays in resolving
individual protection cases, which in turn discouraged reporting of
additional sexual violence cases. For example, in Tanzania, UNHCR
protection staff told us that some sexual assault cases were not pursued
or were dropped altogether due to lack of staff and other resources to
devote to them. As a result, victims of sexual violence often remained at
risk while the perpetrator remained at large. Numerous relief officials in
the field with whom we spoke voiced Vacancies Pose Protracted

Protection Problems

Bureau Vacancies in

nondifficult duty stations Vacancies in

difficult duty stations Total vacancies Total protection

positions Percentage of

protection vacancies

Africa 10 21 31 103 30% Central Asia, Southwest Asia, Near and Middle East
4 9 13 49 27 Asia and Pacific 5 1 6 30 20 Americas 2 0 2 15 13 Europe 6 3
9 83 11 Department of International Protection (headquarters) 3 0 3 17 18

Total 30 34 64 320 a 20

Page 17 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance frustration over UNHCR*s
inability to follow up on protection cases that were referred to them.

In general, UNHCR employs a voluntary staff assignment and rotation
policy: UNHCR does not direct staff where to serve, and staff members are
responsible for finding and applying for their next post before their tour
ends. While the High Commissioner emphasized in a 2001 letter to staff
that it is incumbent upon UNHCR staff to be in the field, near refugees,
to provide effective protection, many hardship posts are vacant or

understaffed. One problem is that UNHCR does not have a centralized way to
track and ensure that staff members apply for their next position, 7
resulting in both post vacancies and staff being without assignment. As of

January 2003, according to UNHCR staffing data, 109 staff were inbetween
assignments* staying either at their home of record or at their old
assignment with an average of 4 months lapsing before staff took a new
position. 8 Furthermore, UNHCR*s regulations do not require staff members
to rotate

among duty station categories (i. e., from a nonhardship to a hardship
duty station), although there is an expectation that they will do so.
According to some UNHCR staff with whom we spoke, there is a sentiment
among staff

that being posted in a remote location (also referred to as the ** deep
field**) negatively affects a person*s promotion potential, as they would
be *forgotten* by those making decisions in Geneva. In addition, the
percentage of staff over the age of 40 has increased from 54 percent in
1990 to 70 percent in 2000, and UNHCR officials acknowledge that a larger
percentage of this aging workforce is reluctant or unwilling to serve in
difficult duty stations because of personal reasons. UNHCR*s work requires
many staff to live in remote, isolated locations that are not conducive to
family life, and with more than half the duty stations designated as
nonfamily, it is difficult to find enough staff willing to be separated
from their families. According to UNHCR human resource officials, a
further consequence of the organization*s limited rotation policy is that
high- risk, hardship duty stations are more likely to attract

7 The onus is on the individual staff member to apply for his or her next
post; UNHCR has no mechanism to ensure that staff apply in time for a
seamless transition from one post to another. 8 During the comment period
on the draft report, UNHCR clarified that 80 percent of staff in between
assignments are deployed on temporary missions or assignments, or continue
at their post until their successor arrives. Staff Assignment and Rotation

Policies Are Ineffective

Page 18 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance less experienced junior staff
without dependents than more experienced senior staff with dependents.
UNHCR relies on short- term staffing deployments during emergency

refugee operations to fill vacancies or augment country teams. Deployments
generally last for 2 months but can extend up to 6 months. According to
UNHCR and relief officials, while emergency deployments do help fill an
immediate protection gap, the system has several drawbacks. Among them are
the high operational and financial costs involved in relocating staff.
Emergency deployments require intensive staff training

and orientation and incur substantial transportation and relocation
expenses. The emergency deployment mechanism can also leave a vacancy in
the deploying staff*s original duty station. In Tanzania, for example, we
observed that a senior protection officer responsible for more than
100,000 refugees was away from his/ her post for more than 6 months while
on emergency deployment in Afghanistan. During Sierra Leone*s recent civil
war, UNHCR had 77 emergency staff deployments on 2- month missions over a
19- month period. According to the Country Representative, so many staff
rotated in and out that he barely learned their names. Relief officials
active during the Sierra Leone emergency told us that by the time the new
UNHCR staff understood the local protection

context it was time for them to rotate back out, which limited their
effectiveness. According to another senior UNHCR field official, the
protection workload during Sierra Leone*s civil war would not have
constituted an emergency if an adequate number of staff had been assigned
initially.

To help fill empty field positions, UNHCR also relies on U. N. volunteers
and project staff* workers contracted for a limited time by a specific
project. In 2002, there were 106 U. N. volunteers serving in protection
functions. However, according to UNHCR officials, while U. N. volunteers
are a valuable source of staff support, they are often relatively
inexperienced. Furthermore, according to UNHCR officials, because project
staff are not regular UNHCR employees and are governed by restrictive
employment regulations, they cannot work beyond an 8- hour day or on
weekends. As a result, according to these officials, project staff are
often unavailable during critical emergency periods. In Tanzania, for

example, many of the Burundian refugees arrive during the night or over
weekends, when crossing the border is considered safer. Because only UNHCR
staff are available to assist during these surge periods, the workforce is
even further strained. Stopgap Staffing Mechanisms

Address Emergency Situations but Have Drawbacks

Page 19 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance Although protection officers
have primary responsibility for the protection of refugees, UNHCR states
that all staff serve in a protection role.

However, a long- standing impediment is insufficient training for
nonprotection staff on protection issues, especially regarding women and
girls. In our examination of UNHCR protection reports and evaluations
between 1990 and 2002, we found about half cited the need for training to
increase the organization*s capacity to protect women and children.

However, during our fieldwork, we had extensive discussions with UNHCR
officials and their implementing partners* staff and found that few of
them had received any training on protection issues. For example, in a
meeting with UNHCR*s field office team in Kibondo, Tanzania, only 4 of 43
staff told us they had received training on protection issues. Similarly,
in discussions with staff from UNHCR implementing partners, who are in the
camps and in daily contact with the refugees, only a few had any
protection- related training or were familiar with UNHCR*s guidelines on
the protection of refugee women or children. In our discussions, we were
further told that protection training was needed in such areas as how to
identify and address sexual violence cases and how to work with refugee
camp leaders and the local community to solve protection concerns.

During the course of our review, we found that numerous protection
training courses and modules have been developed and made available to
UNHCR nonprotection staff and to implementing partners, such as Protecting
Refugees: A Field Guide for NGOs (1999) and Human Rights and Refugee
Protection (1995). However, according to several senior UNHCR officials,
the organization has not committed the necessary time or resources to this
training. These officials added that if UNHCR continues to assert that all
field- based staff serve as protection officers, then it is incumbent that
they be properly trained in protection issues. Furthermore, according to
UNHCR implementing partners in Tanzania and Sierra Leone, there is a very
high turnover rate among nongovernmental organization staff in the field
and therefore a continuous need for training. While UNHCR has collaborated
with international organizations such as

the International Rescue Committee, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, and
Save the Children in delivering humanitarian assistance, we observed that
there are also opportunities to work with these types of organizations to

help protect refugees. According to U. S. government and relief officials
with whom we spoke, including other organizations in protection activities
is necessary because of the increased scope and complexity of refugee
situations worldwide and certain governments* restrictions on UNHCR*s
access to refugees and vulnerable populations. Lack of Training Continues

to Hinder Protection UNHCR Has Opportunities to Increase Partnering to
Fill Protection Gaps

Page 20 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance According to officials of
international and nongovernmental organizations, these groups have some
capacity and resources to assist and augment

UNHCR*s protection efforts, though such collaboration has been rare thus
far. Based on our observations during fieldwork and discussions with these
officials, their organizations could provide personnel and other resources
to

 assist in registering refugee women;  provide legal case management of
victims of rape and sexual violence;  find durable solutions for
refugees, such as identifying individuals for third

country resettlement;  increase the number of international staff to
monitor camps and

surrounding areas for protection problems; and  ensure systematic
reporting of incidents.

In addition, UNHCR security personnel, who assess security and situation
risks for staff in the field, said they could apply their expertise to
refugees and other vulnerable populations and thus supplement the work of
protection officers.

During the course of our evaluation, we noted two partnerships already in
existence that could serve as useful models on which to expand. For
example, the International Rescue Committee*s Protection SURGE Capacity
Project, started in 2001, placed 36 temporary protection staff in
nonemergency refugee situations. In Sierra Leone, we met with a SURGE

protection officer who was the only international staff available to
receive and relocate more than 10, 000 fleeing Liberian refugees from the
border after unexpected fighting in Liberia erupted. Also, the Red Cross
Movement and nongovernmental organizations have recently collaborated with
UNHCR in designing a protection- training workshop, called *Reach Out,*
for mid- level non- UNHCR staff. 9 Figure 4 depicts the entrance of two

refugee camps in Thailand. A nonsignatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention,
Thailand denies formal refugee status to fleeing Burmese who are instead
afforded only *temporary shelter* along its border. UNHCR,

9 Both the Protection SURGE Capacity Project and the Reach Out protection
training initiative were funded by State*s Bureau of Population, Refugees,
and Migration.

Page 21 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance which has only been accorded
observer status by the Thai government, relies significantly on
nongovernmental organizations to monitor the

protection situation in the camps.

Figure 4: Refugee *Temporary Shelters* in Thailand Another group that
UNHCR may have greater opportunity to work with is U. N. peacekeeping
forces, often the only international entity with some capability to
protect refugees and other vulnerable groups in situations of armed
conflict. We found that UNHCR and peacekeeping forces have worked together
in some instances when force commanders judged that

Page 22 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance mission mandates, resources,
and capabilities permitted this collaboration. For example, a successful
partnership occurred in 2001 when U. N.

peacekeepers assisted in separating armed combatants from a refugee camp
in northwestern Congo. According to U. N. and relief officials with whom
we spoke, two key protection areas in which UNHCR and peacekeepers have
opportunities to work together are:

 ensuring access to vulnerable populations for humanitarian assistance
and protection; and

 separating civilians from armed combatants in refugee camps and
settlements.

While UNHCR officials in general viewed partnering as a positive
development, they expressed concern that partnering could dilute the
agency*s unique protection mandate by delegating its tasks to external
parties. This concern has grown as European donors have channeled
increasing proportions of their refugee funding to their bilateral aid
agencies and national nongovernmental organizations that operate
independently of UNHCR leadership. These officials noted that some
nongovernmental organizations hold political views that may complicate
UNHCR*s relationship with the refugees* country of origin and country of
asylum. However, according to relief experts, partnerships can be
structured so UNHCR continues to be the main interlocutor with governments
and maintains primary responsibility for overall protection while
international organizations help fulfill discrete protection tasks.

Following allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by relief workers
and U. N. peacekeepers in refugee settings in West Africa in 2001, the
United Nations and international organizations undertook a number of
remedial and preventive measures at both the global and country level. At
the global level, the U. N. *s Office of Internal Oversight Services
(OIOS) conducted a detailed investigation into the allegations presented
in the February 2002 report by UNHCR and Save the Children- UK 10 and
concluded that the charges could not be verified. However, during the
course of the investigation, OIOS discovered other specific cases of abuse
and concluded that sexual exploitation of refugees is a real problem. To

10 UNHCR and Save the Children- UK, Sexual Violence & Exploitation: The
Experience of Refugee Children in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone
(Geneva: United Nations, Feb. 2002). Despite Remedial

Actions, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Power Still a Problem

Page 23 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance address the problem, the U.
N. *s Inter- Agency Standing Committee 11 established a task force in 2002
and implemented a plan of action for U. N. agencies and nongovernmental
organization to follow. The plan focused

on (1) outlining preventive actions to help agencies create an environment
in humanitarian crises free of sexual exploitation, (2) providing basic
health and psychosocial care to survivors of abuse, and (3) developing
management and coordination mechanisms to ensure accountability of
humanitarian agencies.

We examined several international organizations* remedial actions and
found that they had made a concerted effort to address the issue of sexual
exploitation by their staff. For example, after reviewing documents and
discussing the issue with field staff from UNHCR, the International
Committee of the Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services, and the
International Rescue Committee, we found that organizations had

 sent clear statements to staff of their ethical responsibilities toward
refugees, the need for accountability, and *zero tolerance* of exploitive
behavior;

 developed or revised codes of conduct to guide the behavior and
attitudes of staff;

 provided awareness and training workshops for international and national
staff; and

 polled country staff globally on the potential for situations of sexual
exploitation and conducted investigations of high- risk environments.

Our extensive interviews with relief workers, peacekeepers, and refugees
in the field also indicated a very high awareness concerning the issue of
abuse of power, the ethical and professional conduct expected of relief
workers and peacekeepers, and the rights and entitlements of refugees.

11 The U. N. Inter- Agency Task Force is composed of the following
members: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, U. N.
Development Program, U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees, U. N.
Children*s Fund, World Food Program, Food and Agriculture Organization,
World Health Organization, and the U. N. Family Planning Agency. In
addition, there is a standing invitation to the International Organization
on Migration,

International Committee of the Red Cross, U. N. High Commissioner for
Human Rights, the Representative of the Secretary General on Internally
Displaced Persons, the World Bank, the International Council of Voluntary
Agencies, InterAction, and the Steering Committee for Humanitarian
Response.

Page 24 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance We also observed that UNHCR
had mechanisms in place in the camps for refugees to confidentially report
abuses of power and had trained refugee

women leaders to monitor for exploitive situations. In Thailand*s Mae La
refugee camp, for example, we met members of the women*s committee who had
received UNHCR sexual and gender- based violence training, served as the
camp*s ** eyes and ears, ** and were actively engaged in managing cases of
exploitation and domestic and sexual violence. Figure 5 shows a woman from
the Karen tribe engaged in an income- generation project that supports
women*s programs in the camp. Income generation and empowerment programs
make women less vulnerable to exploitation.

Figure 5: A Karen Women*s Committee Income- Generating Activity, Mae La,
Thailand, 2003

A woman weaving cloth to be sold in the camp; proceeds are used to provide
members with income and to support women*s programming in the camp.

Despite these efforts by international organizations, abuse of refugees
continues to be a problem. During our fieldwork in Tanzania and Sierra

Page 25 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance Leone refugee camps, we met
with UNHCR and nongovernmental organization officials who were actively
investigating several new cases of

sexual exploitation by relief workers. In the Tanzania situation, eight
nongovernmental organization relief workers and four Tanzanian police
officers employed under a U. S. government- funded project were fired for
sexual exploitation of refugee girls or failure to report the
exploitation. 12 In addition, senior UNHCR officials in Nepal were
dismissed for tolerating an environment of exploitation among Bhutanese
refugees by refugee men and Nepalese government officials employed under
UNHCR- funded projects.

Moreover, based on our fieldwork, analysis of UNHCR staffing, and review
of UNHCR*s most recent reports on refugees (2000- 2002), the conditions in
refugee camps create an ongoing environment in which women and girls

are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse of power. First, camps are
sites of extreme poverty, and women are often reduced to exchanging sex
for otherwise unavailable food and nonfood items such as clothing, shelter
materials, and cooking items. According to refugee women with whom we
spoke, adolescent girls seeking such items as clothes and jewelry are
particularly susceptible to transactional sex relationships. Second, there
is limited monitoring of camps because few UNHCR professional staff are

present, leaving actual day- to- day management of camps to locally hired
staff or the refugees themselves. Finally, some relief workers and
refugeeled camp management staff hold cultural attitudes that are
accepting of sexually exploitative arrangements and thus perpetuate the
problem.

Although the issue of sexual exploitation of refugee women and girls by
relief staff has recently caught the attention of the public and
international organizations due to the publicity of the West African case,
the problem is

long- standing and likely to continue, according to relief and human
rights experts. In our examination of UNHCR and nongovernmental
organizations* reports on refugee protection, we found numerous references
to refugee women being exploited while in camps and recommendations for
corrective actions (see app. II). However, it is only recently that action
has been taken. Given this situation, relief and human rights experts,
including senior UNHCR officials, emphasized the need for a continuing
high- level focus on preventing exploitation by international
organizations in such forums as the Inter- Agency Standing Committee and

12 All State Department funded nongovernmental organizations are required
to incorporate the Inter- Agency Standing Committee*s six core principles
into their codes of conduct.

Page 26 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance UNHCR*s Executive Committee.
They noted that international relief organizations are moving on to new
emergencies and priorities and feared that the current attention to
preventing sexual exploitation will wane

before it becomes a part of organizations* institutional culture. The U.
S. government addresses the protection needs of refugees and other
vulnerable populations primarily by providing funding to international
organizations mandated to provide protection. In 2002, the Department of
State*s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration provided UNHCR $265
million in budget support* nearly 28 percent of the organization*s
funding. Table 3 shows the amount of funds State contributed to
international organizations mandated to provide protection.

Table 3: State Department*s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
Contributions to UNHCR, United Nations Children*s Fund, and the
International Committee of the Red Cross, 1998- 2002 Dollars in millions
Year UNHCR UNICEF ICRC

1998 $268 $1 $101 1999 293 14 127 2000 261 18 124 2001 243 8 122 2002 265
11 124 Source: Department of State. Note: The U. S. government*s total
contribution to UNICEF in 2002 was $110 million, which includes emergency
and regular budget support.

The Department of State also provides grants to nongovernmental
organizations to implement targeted protection activities to augment
international organizations* protection efforts. In 2002, State provided
$11.4 million to fund 35 discrete protection- related projects. During our
fieldwork we observed several of these small grant projects (ranging from
under $100,000 to $2 million) and found that they focused on protection

gaps. For example,  In Tanzania, a $1 million grant strengthened the
government*s capacity to

maintain the civilian and humanitarian character of the camps in its
territory. The funding enabled deployment of nearly 280 Tanzanian police
to the border camps to maintain law and order and prevent and investigate
crimes, including incidents of sexual and gender- based violence. U. S.
Government

Funds International Organizations* Protection Activities

Page 27 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance  In Sierra Leone, a $630,000
sexual and gender- based violence prevention and response program provided
shelter for female- headed households, income- generation and leadership
training for women and girls, gender

sensitization training for host communities, and psychosocial counseling,
medical care, and rehabilitation support to victims of sexual assault.

USAID is not directly involved in refugee protection programming; however,
a number of its humanitarian and development assistance activities
indirectly contribute to protection of refugees and other vulnerable
persons. USAID*s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance provides non food
humanitarian assistance, such as shelter, water sanitation, and food
security, to persons caught up in crisis situations. The Office of Foreign
Disaster Assistance has also provided funding to transport civilians
facing imminent threat of physical attack from insecure areas. USAID*s
Office of Transition Initiatives also indirectly contributes to protection
by assisting countries in their transition from post- conflict situations
to democracy. In countries such as Macedonia and Angola, project staff
have worked with government leaders and populations to strengthen
awareness of and respect for human rights, advocated for a stronger role
for women in peace and reconciliation issues, and assisted ex- child
soldiers in their reintegration into society.

Apart from providing funding, the Department of State historically has
played an active role advocating within the international community for
increased attention and programmatic response to the plight of refugees
and other vulnerable populations. According to relief experts and European
government aid representatives, State*s Bureau of Population, Refugees,
and Migration is unique among donors in the number of staff resources
devoted to managing refugee and humanitarian programs. In addition to
approximately 80 Washington- based staff, the bureau has 5 refugee
officers serving in liaison roles with international organizations in
Geneva and Brussels, and another 19 overseas- based officers monitoring
refugee situations. According to U. N. and relief officials with whom we
spoke, the U. S. government is active in assessing humanitarian needs in
the field and promoting an international response to them. A 2002 Overseas
Development Institute report characterized U. S. government U. S.
Government Also

Advocates Strong International Response

Page 28 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance staff as playing the role of
pushing and prodding UNHCR and its operational partners in their
programmatic responses. 13 We reviewed U. S. government policy positions
and statements concerning protection of refugees and other vulnerable
persons since 1998 and found

that the U. S. government has consistently pushed for a strong
international response. For example, in early 2000, the U. S.
Representative to the United Nations strongly criticized the international
community for its failure to address the needs of internally displaced
persons. More recently the U. S. government has argued for renewed support
to UNHCR from the

European Commission and its member states, whose recent cuts in funding
contributed to UNHCR*s budget crisis. As a member of UNHCR*s governing
body (known as the Executive Committee), the U. S. government has
consistently called for increased and better response to refugee
protection needs. Over the last several annual meetings, the U. S.
government has

 encouraged UNHCR to ensure that protection is prioritized as its core
function;

 pressed for continuous focus on the prevention of sexual exploitation; 
criticized staffing decisions by UNHCR management to cut posts in Africa;

and  called for an operations plan for the protection of women that would

identify benchmarks to measure progress, create a monitoring plan, and
establish a timetable for implementation of specific protection- related
actions.

While international organizations have taken a number of steps in recent
years to improve the protection situation of refugee women and girls, this
population remains extremely vulnerable to sexual violence. Among the
factors undermining the international community*s efforts are the
difficulty of protecting refugees caught up in conflict zones and
recurring budgetary shortfalls caused by donors not fulfilling funding
pledges.

However, UNHCR*s weak management of its workforce planning and 13 Overseas
Development Institute, The *bilateralization* of humanitarian response:
trends in the financial, contractual and managerial environment of
official humanitarian aid (London, U. K.: Oct. 2002). Conclusions

Page 29 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance staffing system also
significantly hinders protection of women and girls. A strategic workforce
process that emphasizes a performance- and goaloriented

approach to human resource management could link the organization*s
mission and goals to its workforce staffing. There are insufficient
numbers of protection staff in many high- risk countries, and UNHCR*s
assignment policy has resulted in extended vacancies at key protection
posts. Furthermore, international relief workers who implement assistance
programs and have daily contact with refugees have not received
protection- related training, and many were unfamiliar with

UNHCR*s guidelines on the protection of women and children. Despite this,
UNHCR*s implementing partners and other international organizations have
significant resources and capabilities that provide opportunities for
partnering arrangements to fill protection gaps. In response to
allegations reported at the end of 2001 of sexual abuse and exploitation
of refugee women and girls by relief workers and peacekeepers, the United
Nations and international organizations adopted codes of conduct stressing
zero tolerance for such behavior and

implemented training programs on gender- based violence for all national
and international staff. In the four countries we visited, we found that
relief workers and peacekeepers were acutely aware of the professional
conduct expected of them, and refugees had access to mechanisms to report
any new problems of sexual exploitation. Nonetheless, during our fieldwork
we observed several new allegations of sexual misconduct by relief
workers. High- level management must continue to focus on the issue of
exploitation because extreme poverty in camps, limited monitoring by
relief workers, and cultural attitudes of some camp staff continue to put
women and girl refugees at risk.

To strengthen the international response to the protection needs of
refugees, especially women and girls, we recommend that the Secretary of
State work with member states to fundamentally reform UNHCR*s staffing
system so that it can more effectively fulfill its core protection
mandate. Measures to accomplish this could include:

 creating a strategic workforce plan that systematically determines
priority staff positions worldwide, based on the relative protection needs
of refugees and realistic assumptions of available resources; and

 developing a staff assignment and rotation system that ensures difficult
and chronically vacant duty stations are filled with employees with the
requisite skills and experience, especially in Africa. Recommendations for

Executive Action

Page 30 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance We also recommend that the
Secretary of State work with other U. N. member states to

 expand training opportunities so that international and nongovernmental
staff in positions of contact with refugee populations are fully versed in
protection policies and practical protection techniques;  encourage the
development of protection partnering arrangements

between and among U. N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations to
better utilize and leverage program and staff resources currently
operating with vulnerable populations; and

 ensure continued focus on efforts to prevent sexual exploitation of
refugee women and girls by making the issue of exploitation an annual
agenda item at refugee policy forums, including the U. N. *s Inter- Agency
Standing Committee and UNHCR*s Executive Committee meetings.

State and UNHCR provided written comments on a draft of this report and we
revised the report where it was necessary. (See app. III and IV for a
reprint of State*s and UNHCR*s comments.) State endorsed the intent behind
the report to improve the protection of refugee women and girls and said
it would exercise its best efforts to implement the report*s
recommendations. State noted that a strategic workforce plan is key to
developing a stronger, more flexible workforce that meets UNHCR*s
strategic needs. State also said it is essential that nongovernmental
organizations receive training on protection issues as they are on the
front lines and serve as protection *eyes and ears.* In this regard, State
plans to promote a more disciplined application of training in fiscal
years 2004 and 2005.

UNHCR disagreed with our recommendation to fundamentally reform its
staffing system, stating that it already has processes for allocating
staff resources and that we did not take into account UNHCR*s full range
of responsibilities. UNHCR believes that improved instruments and capacity
for placing staff and managing vacancies, along with more predictable
donor support for established priorities, are sufficient elements for
success. UNHCR did not indicate its position with regard to our three
other recommendations expanding protection training programs, developing
protection partnering arrangements, and maintaining international
organizations* focus on combating sexual exploitation of refugee women and
girls. It did, however, describe activities in which it is Agency Comments
and Our Evaluation

Page 31 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance engaged pertaining to each
recommendation. Where appropriate we provided some of this information in
the report.

Regarding our recommendation on staffing, we do not dispute UNHCR*s
assertion that its mandate is not limited to the physical protection of
refugees and that it has many responsibilities, including status
determination and finding durable solutions for refugees. Our report
demonstrates the inadequacies of physical protection for refugees and the
lack of an overall strategic workforce plan that incorporates risk to
refugees. We used the World Bank*s database for measuring risk because it
is an authoritative source of political stability and violence
measurements across 160 countries in the absence of any such analysis by
UNHCR. The problems associated with UNHCR*s staffing system have long been
documented in Executive Committee and public and internal UNHCR reports,
including The State of UNHCR*s Staff (December 2000) and In the Service of
Refugees: A Review of UNHCR*s Policy and Practice on Rotations (October
2001), and provide ample evidence of a staffing system failing to place
the necessary number of people, with the requisite skills,

where they are needed most. UNHCR may disagree with our use of the term **
fundamental** when describing the reforms, but we have observed that half-
steps or partial measures will not solve its staffing problems. According
to the reports mentioned above, previous attempts at improving separate
aspects of the staffing system have not achieved the desired results. At a
minimum, UNHCR needs to create a strategic workforce plan that links the
organization*s objectives, resources, and staffing and

systematically incorporates the physical protection of refugees. It also
needs to devise a staff assignment and rotation system that fills vacant
posts in high- risk countries, especially in Africa.

Regarding our recommendation to expand training opportunities, UNHCR
stated that the report does not adequately reflect UNHCR*s existing
protection training programs and activities and provided detailed
information on its training activities, including the Protection Learning
Program. During the course of our evaluation, we reviewed a large number
of protection training courses, modules, and materials and spoke with
staff who participated in the various training programs, including the
Protection Learning Program. By all accounts the protection training
programs and materials are very useful in transmitting protection concepts
and practical techniques to staff. (However, we were told that the 4 month
and 10 month Protection Learning Programs are too time intensive for

field staff.) Nevertheless, when meeting with UNHCR and nongovernmental
organization staff at the camp level in each of our four case study
countries, we found that a large majority of staff had received

Page 32 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance no training on protection
matters. This and our overall analysis of international organizations*
training led to our recommendation to expand protection training.

UNHCR stated that our report does not reflect the extensive partnering
arrangements in which it has engaged for decades and that it would welcome
more extensive involvement with other agencies on the provision of
services. It provided an outline of partnering arrangements between UNHCR
and other U. N. agencies. When we examined UNHCR*s list of arrangements
and recent developments, we noted that they mainly involve high- level
meetings to coordinate assistance activities. Our recommendation, however,
is aimed at increasing the role of international and nongovernmental
organizations in the protection of refugees. International organizations*
daily interaction with refugee populations and their organizational
capacity could be better utilized and leveraged to

enhance refugee protection. Regarding our recommendation on maintaining
international organizations* focus on combating sexual exploitation, UNHCR
made no comment on the substance of the recommendation but provided
additional information on activities it has taken over the last 20 months.
However, under Part B of its response, UNHCR stated that our summary of
the U. N. *s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) report was not
an accurate reflection of the investigation*s conclusion. UNHCR referred
to the report*s conclusion at paragraph 42 as a more accurate
representation of the report and noted further that no allegations against
any U. N. staff

member could be substantiated. Our statement characterizing the OIOS
report was taken from the fifth paragraph of the Executive Summary the
first substantive discussion of the report*s findings, which states that
*although the stories reported by the consultants could not be verified,
the problem of sexual exploitation of refugees is real.* We further note
that 12 of the 17 recommendations in the OIOS report are directed to
UNHCR. We are concerned that the principal message UNHCR has drawn from
the

OIOS report is that UNHCR staff are exonerated from wrongdoing. Our
perspective, however, is that although U. N. staff members were exonerated
from wrongdoing, the problem of sexual exploitation of refugees is
significant.

UNHCR also provided a number of technical comments, which we incorporated
as appropriate.

Page 33 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian Assistance We are sending copies of this
report to interested congressional committees, the Secretary of State, the
Administrator of the U. S. Agency

for International Development, the U. N. Secretary General, and the U. N.
High Commissioner for Refugees. We will also make copies available to
other parties upon request. In addition, this report will be made
available at no charge on the GAO Web site at http:// www. gao. gov.

If you or your staff have any questions concerning this report, please
contact me at (202) 512- 3149 or at gootnickd@ gao. gov. Other GAO
contacts and staff acknowledgments are listed in appendix V.

Sincerely yours, David Gootnick Director, International Affairs and Trade

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology Page 34 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance To assess the gaps and weaknesses in the current international
system of protection of refugees and vulnerable persons, as well as the
actions the

U. N. and international organizations have taken in response to recent
reports of relief workers* and peacekeepers* sexual exploitation of
refugee women and girls, we interviewed officials and analyzed policy,
program, and budgetary documents from the U. N. High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), the U. N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the U.
N.

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the U. N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights, and the U. N. Children*s Fund. In our work
with UNHCR, we met with officials from 19 different offices and examined
extensive staffing data including vacancies, duty station categories, and
worldwide distribution of staff* and reviewed UNHCR staffing policies. We
also met with officials and reviewed reports pertaining to humanitarian
and refugee issues from numerous nongovernmental organizations and think
tanks, including the International Rescue Committee, the United States
Committee for Refugees, Refugees International, and InterAction.

To assess the steps the U. S. government takes to protect refugees and
other vulnerable persons, we interviewed officials and analyzed policy,
program, and budgetary documents from the Department of State*s Bureau of
Population, Refugees, and Migration; the Bureau for International
Organizations; and the U. S. Missions to the United Nations in New York
City and Geneva, Switzerland. When examining State*s small grants program,
we included only those projects that directly dealt with protection
matters, such as conflict prevention and reconciliation, psychosocial
assistance, sexual and gender- based violence prevention, and
transportation of vulnerable populations. We also met with officials and
analyzed program documents from the U. S. Agency for International
Development*s Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Affairs,
including the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Office of
Transition Initiatives; and the Bureau for Global Programs.

We also performed fieldwork in our case study countries of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Thailand to assess the
protection mechanisms in place for refugees and other vulnerable persons
in refugee camps and their surrounding areas within those countries. These
four nations face protracted refugee crises in which refugees and other
vulnerable populations are under imminent threat of physical and sexual
violence by warring parties, local communities, and other refugees, and
were recommended as representative case study countries by State and think
tank officials. In these countries, we observed first- hand the protection
programs and activities conducted by U. N. Appendix I: Scope and
Methodology

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology Page 35 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance organizations, peacekeeping units, the Red Cross Movement,
nongovernmental organizations, and the U. S. government. We also

conducted numerous interviews with refugee- led camp management groups and
individual women and girls to discuss the protection situation in the
camps, as well as the mechanisms in place to report and address incidents
of sexual and gender violence and exploitation.

Finally, we conducted an analysis of 22 UNHCR and nongovernmental
organizations* evaluations and reports issued since 1990 to document the
reported gaps in and recommendations to strengthen the international
community*s system of refugee protection. We also conducted a detailed
analysis of the mandates and capabilities of the 13 current peacekeeping
missions managed by the U. N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

We performed our review from August 2002 through May 2003 in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards.

Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection Reports Page 36 GAO- 03- 663
Humanitarian Assistance We examined 22 reports published since 1990 by
UNHCR and nongovernmental organizations that addressed problems related to

refugee protection. We focused on whether the report cited physical
violence, sexual abuse, or exploitation of refugee women and girls. Each
column heading denotes the year that the report was published. We then

identified eight discrete protection concerns that were commonly discussed
in the reports and listed them in the left column. Finally, we analyzed
the reports to determine whether a protection gap was identified or a
recommendation was made to address the specific protection

concern. Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection

Reports

Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection Reports Page 37 GAO- 03- 663
Humanitarian Assistance [This page is intentionally left blank]

Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection Reports Page 38 GAO- 03- 663
Humanitarian Assistance

Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection Reports Page 39 GAO- 03- 663
Humanitarian Assistance

Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection Reports Page 40 GAO- 03- 663
Humanitarian Assistance United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
Note on Refugee Women and International Protection, Department of
International

Protection, EC/ SCP/ 59, August 28, 1990. [Scope: UNHCR] Executive
Committee of the High Commissioner*s Program, Forty- first session, UNHCR
Policy on Refugee Women, A/ AC. 96/ 754, August 20, 1990. [Scope: UNHCR]

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Refugee and Displaced Women
and Children, Economic and Social Council Resolutions, E/ RES/ 1991/ 23,
May 30, 1991. [Scope: The International Community] United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women,
July 1991. [Scope: UNHCR]

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Progress Report on
Implementation of the UNHCR Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women,
Department of International Protection, EC/ SCP/ 74, July 22, 1992.
[Scope: UNHCR]

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, The Personal Security of
Refugees, Department of International Protection, EC/ 1993/ SCP/ CRP. 3,
May 5, 1993. [Scope: UNHCR] United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
Refugee Protection and Sexual Violence, Executive Committee Conclusions,
No. 73 (XLIV) * 1993, October 8, 1993. [Scope: The United Nations]

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Report of the Working Group
on Refugee Women and Children, Department of International Protection, EC/
SCP/ 85, June 29, 1994. [Scope: UNHCR] United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees, A Review of UNHCR*s Women Victims of Violence Project in
Kenya, Inspection and Evaluation Service, March, 1996, and UNCHR*s Women
Victims of Violence Project in Kenya: An Evaluation Summary, Department of
Administrative and Financial Matters, EC/ 1995/ SC. 2/ CRP. 22, June 8,
1995. [Scope: UNHCR

and Partner NGOs] United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Refugee
Camp Security in the Great Lakes Region, Inspection and Evaluation
Service, EVAL/ 01/ 97, April 1997. [Scope: UNHCR and Partner NGOs]

Bibliography

Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection Reports Page 41 GAO- 03- 663
Humanitarian Assistance United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
Progress Report on Refugee Women and UNHCR*s Framework for Implementation
of the

Beijing Platform for Action, Standing Committee, EC/ 47/ SC/ CRP. 45,
August 15, 1997. [Scope: UNHCR]

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, A Survey of Compliance With
UNHCR*s Policies on Refugee Women, Children, and the Environment,
Evaluation and Policy Analysis Section, EPAS/ 99/ 01, March 1999. [Scope:
UNHCR]

Machel, Grac,a, The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children: A Critical
Review of Progress Made and Obstacles Encountered in Increasing Protection
for War- Affected Children. This paper is a product of the International
Conference on War- Affected Children, Winnipeg, Canada, September 2000.
[Scope: The International Community]

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, A Beneficiary- Based
Evaluation of UNHCR*s Program in Guinea, West Africa, Evaluation and
Policy Analysis Unit, EPAU/ 2001/ 02, January 2001. [UNHCR and Partner
NGOs]

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Evaluation of the Dadaab
Firewood Project, Kenya, Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, EPAU/ 2001/
08, June 2001. [Scope: UNHCR and Partner NGOs]

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Meeting the Rights and
Protection Needs of Refugee Children: An Independent Evaluation of the
Impact of UNHCR*s Activities, Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, EPAU/
2002/ 02- ES, May 2002. [Scope: UNHCR]

Women*s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, UNHCR Policy on Refugee
Women and Guidelines on Their Protection: An Assessment of Ten Years of
Implementation, May 2002. [Scope: UNHCR, NGO Partners] American Council
for Voluntary International Action (InterAction), Report of the
InterAction Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation of
Displaced Children, June 2002. [Scope: The International Community]

United Nations General Assembly, Executive Committee of the High
Commissioner*s Program, Fifty- third Session, Agenda For Protection,

Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection Reports Page 42 GAO- 03- 663
Humanitarian Assistance Addendum, A/ AC. 96/ 965/ Add. 1, June 26, 2002.
[The International Community]

Report of the Inter- Agency Standing Committee Task Force on Protection
From Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Humanitarian Crises, June 2002.
[Scope: UN Agencies and Partner NGOs]

United Nations General Assembly, Fifty- seventh Session, Agenda Item 122,
Report of the Secretary- General on the Activities of the Office of
Internal Oversight Services, Investigation Into Sexual Exploitation of
Refugees by Aid Workers in West Africa, A/ 57/ 465, October 11, 2002.
[Scope: UNHCR and Partner NGOs] United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, Implementation of the

Five Commitments to Refugee Women, 2002. [Scope: UNHCR, Host States, NGO
Partners]

Appendix III: Comments from Department of State Page 43 GAO- 03- 663
Humanitarian Assistance Appendix III: Comments from Department of State

Appendix III: Comments from Department of State Page 44 GAO- 03- 663
Humanitarian Assistance

Appendix III: Comments from Department of State Page 45 GAO- 03- 663
Humanitarian Assistance

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR Page 46 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR Page 47 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR Page 48 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR Page 49 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR Page 50 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR Page 51 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR Page 52 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR Page 53 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR Page 54 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR Page 55 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR Page 56 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR Page 57 GAO- 03- 663 Humanitarian
Assistance

Appendix V: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments Page 58 GAO- 03- 663
Humanitarian Assistance David B. Gootnick (202) 512- 3149 Tetsuo Miyabara
(202) 512- 8974 In addition to those named above, Janey Cohen, Jonathan
Weiss, Christina Werth, Richard Seldin, and Patrick Dickriede made key
contributions to this report. Appendix V: GAO Contacts and Staff

Acknowledgments GAO Contacts Acknowledgments

(32014 (320141)

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