Recounting a recent night with one of her United Nations clients, Gabby says she was asked to wait in the car before the staffer snuck her into his U.N. compound. It was obvious the humanitarian knew what he was doing was wrong and was taking precautions to hide it, said Gabby, whom Devex will continue to refer to only by this name to protect her identity.

Devex spoke with several sex workers in Juba who shared that the sex trade in the capital is booming thanks in large part to international aid workers and U.N. staff: “I take advantage,” Gabby said. “They’re good clients, they give good money, better than anybody else.”

Not only is prostitution illegal in South Sudan according to the country’s penal code, it’s also against the U.N.s’ code of conduct as well as most NGOs’ ethical mandates. But civil societies in South Sudan say the country’s dire economic situation is driving people to prostitution, with women and girls selling their bodies to earn a living out of desperation.

“Well-paid people are fueling the sex worker industry in Juba,” said Edmund Yakani, executive director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, a national nonprofit. “NGOs and U.N agencies and top public officers are taking advantage of women and girls’ low access to income.”

"As a whole, there is a ‘culture’ in the humanitarian sector that has undertones of ethnocentrism, racism, and misogynism that need to be addressed and challenged,” Tim Berke, South Sudan’s country director for international NGO IsraAID, told Devex.

Read the full article about humanitarians part in sex trade by Sam Mednick at Devex.