Code of Conduct and Policies

• ACTED Code of Conduct
• ACTED Organisational Policies
• ACTED Complaints and Response Mechanisms

ACTED Code of Conduct is core to the organization, its team, operations and management. The Code of Conduct provides clear guidance on the standards of behavior and conduct all staff are required to abide by. Those standards are as follows:

1. I will respect others
2. I will maintain high standards of conduct, both personal and professional
3. I will commit to protect ACTED’s beneficiaries
4. I will ensure to be attentive to the safety & security of myself & others
5. I will protect ACTED’s resources and assets
6. I will protect the confidentiality of ACTED’s information and data
7. I will report any incident or concern relating to this Code

This Code of Conduct is binding on all ACTED staff, including ACTED employees, volunteers, interns and freelance consultants, both international and national, whether they are based in ACTED headquarters or in the field, who have to sign the Code, as well as fully understand its content, adhere to all of its provisions, inform and report, while creating a working environment conducive to upholding the standards in the Code of Conduct.

ACTED Code of Conduct is governed notably by :

• ACTED’s Child Protection Policy
• ACTED’s Conflict of Interest Prevention Policy
• ACTED’s Anti-Fraud, Bribery & Corruption Policy
• ACTED’s Policy Against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
• ACTED’s Grievance Policy
• ACTED’s Data Protection Policy
• ACTED’s Environmental Safeguarding Policy
• ACTED’s Anti-Terrorism Policy

Child Protection Policy

As an NGO operating in numerous countries, ACTED recognises that children in the communities it works with or comes into contact with are a particularly vulnerable group as children are at greater risk of violence, neglect, abuse and exploitation – particularly in disaster and emergency contexts in which their protective environment has been severely impacted.

This Child Protection Policy is ACTED’s statement of intent that demonstrates our commitment to safeguarding children from harm within internal procedure, throughout all activities and particularly in the implementation of Child Protection programming and child protection mainstreaming within all sectors of intervention.

This Policy has been developed to ensure the mainstreaming of protection and child protection at an institutional level in order to promote the maximum protection of children from violence, neglect, abuse and exploitation. The Policy ensures that ACTED has procedures in place to prevent and respond to any form of violence, neglect, abuse and exploitation, and non-compliance with the Policy and complementary global procedure and Policy.

Conflict of Interest Prevention Policy

To ensure the most efficient, responsible and transparent delivery of aid, ACTED, its staff and partners commit to preventing their private interests conflicting with their duties.

It is their responsibility to avoid such conflict, regardless of whether this conflict is actual, potential, or likely to appear as such. Under no circumstances may the staff of ACTED and of other associated entities take unfair advantage of their professional position for their personal interest. The Conflict of Interest Prevention Policy is aimed at guiding ACTED staff and partners, while encouraging prevention, promoting detection, and setting out a clear investigation procedure.

Anti-Fraud, Bribery & Corruption Policy

ACTED has a no tolerance approach towards corruption and is committed to respecting the highest standards in terms of efficiency, responsibility and transparency in its activities.

ACTED is guided by 3 main principles related to anti-fraud and corruption:

• Anti- Fraud and Corruption: ACTED refuses to support fraudulent actions directly or indirectly and undertakes to minimize risks of corruption in the implementation of its activities.
• Transparency and Accountability: ACTED commits to be fully accountable and transparent towards its beneficiaries, partners and financial donors, by providing access to information regarding the allocation and management of its funds. The organisation undertakes to have in hand all necessary tools to ensure the correct management of its operations.
• Professionalism: ACTED bases its design, implementation, management and evaluation of programmes on high standards of professionalism, and capitalises on its experience in order to maximize efficiency and resources.

Policy Against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

ACTED adopts a zero tolerance approach towards sexual exploitation and abuse, and is thus committed to their prevention both within the organisation and within the framework of its programmes and beneficiary populations.

Any direct or indirect participation in sexual exploitation and abuse defined by the Policy Against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse is prohibited for ACTED staff and other partner and associated entities.

Fully aware that sexual exploitation and abuse can be most effectively avoided by creating an effective organizational culture, ACTED has developed a series of awareness modules and internal training aimed at preventing and identifying sexual exploitation and abuse. In parallel, ACTED has developed a body of legal and practical procedures, notably through its Code of Conduct, its ethical declarations, its Human Resources and AME manuals, re-asserting the need to respect the dignity of individuals.

Grievance Policy

ACTED’s Grievance Policy provides and internal framework for professional grievances raised by staff through internal dedicated channels of reporting, and a proper response mechanism and follow-up.  A 5 step-approach allows to resolve any issues that might occurr, from informal resolution to information to ACTED HQ (over mediation, arbitration and internal investigation) while categorizing the complaints made and ensuring a proper response mechanism and follow-up.

Data Protection Policy

ACTED’s Data Protection Policy controls how personal information can be used and shared, as well as ensures the protection and confidentiality of personal data as well as sensitive data.

As a humanitarian and development organization, ACTED recognizes that the environment is intrinsic to sustainable development and that climate change threatens the access of beneficiaries and communities to food, water and livelihoods.

ACTED is committed to the promotion of a 3Zero world: zero exclusion, zero carbon, zero poverty. In line with this, ACTED is committed to good environmental stewardship in its operations and in all of its humanitarian and development programming. ACTED commits to minimising the environmental impact of our operations and whenever possible, balancing it with necessities to fulfil our mandate.

This policy aims at protecting the environment and reducing the risk of negative impacts with the aim of reaching carbon neutrality eventually. We recognise this to be a long-term commitment to updating our practices continually in light of advances in technology and environmental science.

Our 10 main environmental principles:

• Minimise, and wherever possible, eliminate the release of any pollutant that may cause environmental damage to the air, water, earth or its inhabitants;
• Sustain the use of renewable natural resources and conserve non-renewable resources through efficient use and careful planning
• Minimise the creation of waste, and wherever economically possible reuse, repair and recycle materials and encourage others to do likewise
• Use environmentally safe and sustainable energy sources;
• Minimise the risk of environmental damage by employing safe technologies and operating procedures;
• Ensure that consideration is given to purchasing environmentally sustainable products and services and develop sustainable supply chains by prioritising suppliers that have environmental standards compatible with its own;
• Promote responsible travel and transport by encouraging the use of travel options that minimise environmental impact wherever practicable;
• Ensure compliance with relevant international and national legislation, regulations and codes of practice on environmental matters relevant to ACTED operations;
• Disclose to its employees and to the public, incidents relating to its operations that cause environmental harm and measures ACTED took to address their consequences;
• Promote environmental good practice and its environmental policy principles to all partners, suppliers, consultants, donors, supporters, contractors.

Anti-Terrorism Policy

With its Anti-Terrorism Policy, ACTED reasserts its commitment to never knowingly support, tolerate or encourage terrorism or the activities of those who embrace terrorism.

ACTED Complaints and Response Mechanisms

ACTED has four Complaints and Reporting Mechanisms aimed at collecting and answering any concerns, issues or questions arising on the application of ACTED’s Code of Conduct and organisational policies. These mechanisms streamlined throughout ACTED are means of ensuring effective multi-channel communications within ACTED teams as well as with partners, stakeholders, beneficiaries and surrounding communities.
ACTED Complaints and Reporting Mechanisms are both global and country-based. They focus on:

1. COMPLAINTS & RESPONSE MECHANISM (CRM)
   ACTED beneficiary Complaints and Response Mechanism is in place for the population ACTED serves to raise concerns and give feedback on activities, staff, partners.
   All complaints are welcome and responded as quickly as possible. Such a mechanisms allows ACTED for more relevance, impact and do no harm in its activities, while improving the quality of our work, enhancing the trust and confidence of our beneficiaries, identifying areas of our work which need to be improved, and ensuring experience and best practice learning.
2. TRANSPARENCY MECHANISM
   ACTED has adopted a participatory approach with the desire to promote and ensure transparency within the organization. A dedicated Transparency mechanism
   is in place to raise corruption issues. In case of corruption, an email with full details should be sent to transparency@acted.org which is managed by the Audit and Transparency Director at ACTED HQ level to decide upon the investigations to be conducted.
3. SECURITY AND SAFETY (internal)
   Safety and security management aims to reduce personal and organisational vulnerability to risks. Reducing staff exposure to risk and ACTED’s organisational risks requires a keen understanding of the context and adapting to situations. Efficient security policies, procedures and day-to-day management rely on accurate and timely information that include the reporting of all security and safety incidents occurring through the Security Incident Report. Any incident witnessed or heard by our staff and which may have potential implications to the overall security situation is reported using the dedicated reporting mechanism, that not only allows swift and adapted response, but also to identify trends and futures risks for preventive and mitigation measures and changes in security protocols to be made.
4. GRIEVANCE MECHANISM (internal)
   ACTED provides a framework for professional grievances raised by staff through internal dedicated channels of reporting grievances and misbehaviors, ensuring a proper response mechanism and follow-up.