WISER approach to safeguarding

Both the Met Office and the WISER (Weather and Climate Information Services) Programme are committed to protecting our staff, the staff of our partner organisations, and the communities we work with from all forms of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Sexual Harassment (SEAH), child abuse, exploitation and neglect, bullying, discrimination, harassment and trafficking in persons.

All the above are prohibited behaviours, and the Met Office has a policy of zero tolerance for inaction to prevent, report or respond to any of the above behaviours and zero tolerance for retaliation against victims/survivors or people raising a concern.

WISER’s approach to safeguarding aims to enable this, and in collaboration with our partners we have developed a comprehensive set of policies, tools, frameworks and guidance. Their successful uptake and use require them to be universally understood by both Met Office teams and partners, and to be applicable to the full range of programming activities. As such, the safeguarding policies and the wider frameworks that support them align with international best practice, UK law, regional human rights standards, and FCDO requirements, and we’re also guided by WISER’s Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) standards.

WISER is dynamic, and while consistency with and adherence to UK and other, relevant national and international standards is important, adaptation to the local context is also essential. WISER safeguarding tools and guidance are designed to be adapted to suit different operating environments, and safeguarding is embedded into project activities as part of the planning cycle where expert support and tools are available to support our partners enhance their own approach. This including identifying and mitigating risks, developing policies in line with best practices, and carrying out thorough due diligence throughout the value chain.

While the WISER programme is well-placed to significantly enhance both ours and our partners approach to safeguarding, we are also driven to continuously improve. We do this through lesson learning as well as individual and organisational development. A structured package of safeguarding training for our teams is under development and this is supported by securing feedback and learning lessons from our partners on their approaches and expertise to continuously build our own capabilities.

Approaching safeguarding in this way - through long term collaboration and partnership - is part of our wider efforts to work transformationally and sustainably.