By Sonia Elks
LONDON, Oct 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Half of aid workers have experienced racism at work in the past year, with staff and activists saying agencies are failing to combat discrimination in their ranks, a global survey by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and aid consultancy Aid Works found.
An online survey of 286 aid workers in 63 countries found 143 people had experienced racism at work in the past year, ranging from having contributions overlooked, to pay disparities and overt racist comments, but fewer than half reported it.
The findings come as aid agencies face closer scrutiny, with sexual abuse scandals tarnishing a $30 billion sector that employs more than half a million people, and protests over racism sparking wider debate on entrenched discrimination.
“What aid agencies need to take from this is that they have been complicit for a very long time,” said Angela Bruce-Raeburn, a campaigner against racism in aid and the regional advocacy director for Africa at the Global Health Advocacy Incubator.
“When you say ‘What are you doing to combat it?’, you are asking people to change decades and decades of implicit bias, of exclusivity, of the good old boys network.”
More work is needed to ensure diversity, inclusion and accountability are always upheld within the United Nations (U.N.) system, said a spokeswoman for the secretariat in response to the survey’s findings.
Of those respondents who chose to share their workplace, the largest number said they worked for the U.N. and its agencies.
“Racism and discrimination have no place in the humanitarian system and we are committed to eliminating all forms of racism and racial discrimination in humanitarian work environments and operations,” she said.
“We are making progress but there is more to do and we will never be complacent.”
