Prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA)

Cover image: © UNICEF/UN018669/Zehbrauskas 

About this course 

The Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) e-learning course is mandatory for all UN Funds and Programmes Personnel, including staff, consultants, individual contractors, stand-by personnel, UN volunteers, interns and other persons who work for the UN under an individual contract, whether at Headquarters or at other duty stations. Personnel of implementing partners and institutional contracts associated with the UN are also strongly encouraged to take this course. 

This e-learning course is composed of a set of lessons designed to raise your awareness about Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, become familiar with a range of measures to combat Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, understand the impact of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse on victims and the consequences for UN Personnel who commit Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

Through discussion, examples and case studies, the course will familiarize you with the UN Standards of Conduct on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and your obligations to uphold these standards, what you can do to prevent Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and how to report such abuses by UN Personnel. If you are a manager (Head of Office / Head of Department), you will learn about additional responsibilities to enforce the UN standards of conduct. 

Please note that this course is intended to reach all individuals working for or with the UN system: staff members, consultants, vendors and other partners. 

Modules are shared under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). But UN logos may not be used.

Please visit the page Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) online course: project files for more information about the license, the PSEA course as a UN inter-agency project, and to download the files

Learning objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Explain what you can do to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse of the local and displaced population
• Define the UN standards of conduct on sexual exploitation and abuse and understand your obligations as UN personnel
• Describe how to report sexual exploitation and abuse
• Understand the consequences of such abuses
• Describe what managers, heads of office and heads of department must do to enforce the UN standards of conduct 

Audience

This course is mandatory for all UN Funds and Programmes Personnel including volunteers and contractors. All newly recruited staff members are required to complete the course as part of their induction.

Length

It should take you about 90 minutes to complete this self-paced course. 

Methodology

This course is divided in 5 modules. Lessons cover an Introduction to the course (Introduction Module), UN Standards of Conduct of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (Module 1), Obligations of UN Personnel (Module 2), Consequences of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (Module 3) and Responsibilities of Heads of Offices and Heads of Departments (Module 4).

The lessons contain a mix of case studies, short examples and scenarios created to reinforce messages specific to each lesson. Lessons also refer to and provide information on specific rules and policies. The course finishes with a summary and then a course assessment; a certificate can be printed upon successful completion of this assessment.

Structure

This course is composed of:

• Introduction
• Module 1: UN Standards of Conduct of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
• Module 2: Obligations of UN Personnel
• Module 3: Consequences of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
• Module 4: Responsibilities of Heads of Offices/Heads of Departments
• Final assessment