Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Risk Overview (SEARO)

The Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Risk Overview (SEARO) is a Composite Index that brings together indicators on a range of different factors that can influence the risk of SEA. SEARO categorizes countries with ongoing humanitarian response operations according to their level of risk, enabling comparisons of risk between countries and assessing how those risks change over time.  

SEARO can help IASC members and donors to make more informed use of limited humanitarian resources towards priority issues and countries of concern. It is intended to help design effective mitigation measures by prioritizing countries for additional allocation of resources, capacity, projects, advocacy and stakeholder dialogue. It is expected that IASC members and donors will incorporate this information into their decision-making at a global level. At country-level, SEARO is intended to be used by inter-agency PSEA coordinators and members of inter-agency PSEA Networks under the umbrella of the humanitarian coordinator (HCs) and humanitarian country team (HCT) that hold the primary accountability, decision making and oversight authority on the protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) 

The SEARO Analytical Framework was developed from an initial pool of more than 240 potential risk factors identified through a literature review of 80+ sources and consultation with 28 experts. During the project's research and consultation phase these potential risk factors were reviewed, classified and organised to create the SEARO Analytical Framework.