The measures against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) of aid beneficiaries and target population perpetrated by humanitarian and development workers have been prompted since 2002 with the media coverage of sexual abuse of a number of vulnerable children such as refugee and internally displaced children in West Africa by aid workers including UN staff members.

“Secretary-General's Bulletin: Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse,” for instance, was issued in 2003 to strengthen the measures against SEA.

SEA issues, however, have not been resolved to date. It is partly because Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (PSEA) have remained as a formality and failed to prevent the occurrence of SEA and assist SEA victims/survivors. The paper aimed to examine the structural factors behind the persistence of SEA despite the fact that PSEA has been in place for over 20 years since 2002, through a literature review and the analysis of the results of the author's interviews with aid workers and beneficiaries.

The analysis of the study has identified that the measures for PSEA have been implemented without fully respecting the intensions of the SEA victims/survivors and the people at high risk of SEA such as women and children. Rather, these measures have been utilized for keeping the prestigious status of aid agencies.

The study concludes that it is necessary for humanitarian and development aid agencies to remove their paternalistic nature and overcome the problems associated with paternalism such as self-righteousness, male dominance, and racial discrimination, in order for PSEA to fulfill its essential function of preventing the occurrence of SEA and supporting the recovery of SEA victims/survivors without becoming a mere formality.