As a global humanitarian organization serving the world’s most vulnerable communities, we take our responsibility to program participants, partners, donors, and team members across the countries in which we work, seriously. We acknowledge that building and maintaining trust with the communities we serve is paramount to achieving our mission and are committed to responsibly managing that privilege to ensure that we never cause harm. We are guided by the ethical principles in our Code of Ethic and our organizational policies and procedures.

Misconduct is intentional wrongdoing or improper behaviour that violates NOXCOH policies and procedures.

Safeguarding: Sexual exploitation or abuse of children or adults; human trafficking; forced labour and exploitation; harm, neglect, abuse, and exploitation of children (including sexual activity with anyone under 18 years of age); sexual harassment or abuse of team members.

Fraud and corruption: Corrupt payments (bribes, kickbacks, and facilitation payments), conflicts of interest, fraud (embezzlement, theft, false statements, forgery, impersonation, diversion of resources, fraudulent accounting, and procurement fraud), support for and transactions with prohibited parties and misuse of NOXCOH resources.

Human Resources: Discrimination, harassment and bullying.

Our safeguarding approach

Any form of abuse, exploitation, harassment or trafficking directly contradicts the principles upon which our humanitarian work is based and can cause deep and lasting harm to children or adults who experience it. NOXCOH has zero tolerance for abuse, harassment, or exploitation and is committed to ensuring physical and psychological safety within our teams and our programs. We also understand we must continue to engage and consult with communities where we work, and with local organizations that support and elevate the voices of survivors.

NOXCOH encourages a culture of openness where team members, partners, program participants, and community members can safely raise their concerns, ask questions—including those of a legal and ethical nature—and report unethical behaviour. Operating ethically and with integrity is the highest priority for NOXCOH and all team members are required to report unethical behaviour or violations of any NOXCOH’ policy. To ensure we deliver on our commitment to ethical behaviour, we have multiple methods available to report concerns or seek advice.

Our Integrity Hotline offers three options to confidentially report ethics violations or seek advice in a secure manner. The Integrity Hotline web portal    is available in four languages, 24 hours a day. On the web portal, you may submit your report anonymously.

If you’re a NOXCOH team member, you can report your concerns to your supervisor, a trusted leader, Human Resources, a safeguarding or integrity focal point, safeguarding champion or an Ethics and Assurance Manager in your country. They will ensure that your complaints are confidentially reported to the Ethics and Compliance Department. Additionally, we welcome your feedback.

We recognize it takes courage to speak up when something’s not right. We understand that you might be uncomfortable or anxious. That is why we do not tolerate retaliation against anyone who participates in an investigation, raises a legal or ethical concern, or reports misconduct in good faith. Good faith means that the report was made out of genuine concern for NOXCOH or team members involved. It also means that you have provided information that you believe to be comprehensive, honest, and accurate at the time, even if you are later proven to be mistaken. We consider acts of retaliation to be a serious violation of our ethics policies and values. Retaliation can take many forms, such as threats, intimidation, exclusion, humiliation, and raising issues maliciously. Any team member who believes they are being retaliated against should immediately report this to the Integrity Hotline. Team members who raise issues maliciously or in bad faith (e.g. where a report is knowingly false) will be subject to discipline

If you make a report using our web portal, phone lines, or email address, you will receive an automated confirmation of your submission. You may be contacted for clarification or additional information about your reported concerns, unless your feedback was submitted anonymously. If at any point you are unsure if a report has gone through the proper channels and followed the established process, you can follow up directly with the Integrity Hotline or by emailing the Ethics and Compliance Department.

All reports are taken seriously and will be reviewed and addressed as appropriate. Our ability to provide updates related to your report is limited by our legal responsibilities and confidentiality obligations. Whenever possible, we will provide you with status updates so you know that your concern is receiving an appropriate response. We strive to complete our investigations in a timely and thorough manner. All reports are logged in our case management system.

Our first concern as we proceed with an inquiry is the safety and security of all involved, especially any survivor. We prioritize the safety, health, and well-being of all survivors and offer medical, legal, and psycho-social and emotional support as appropriate. Our safeguarding investigators are all specially trained in providing a survivor-cantered response. We assess risk to the survivor and all other parties to an investigation continuously. If we receive an allegation of sexual abuse, exploitation, or assault, we take appropriate steps to mitigate the risk of the accused individual causing further harm while we work through our investigative process.

If an allegation of misconduct were to involve an executive team or board member, we would engage external expert investigators to ensure the independence of the investigation and objectivity of the conclusions.