WHO - World Health Organization

09/15/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/15/2022 10:58

WHO Director-General's remarks at the PRSEAH Quarterly Briefing with Member States – 15 September 2022

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

Thank you for taking the time to attend this third quarterly Member State Briefing on the prevention of, and response to, sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment.

Almost one year ago, the Independent Commission provided its report on the allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse during WHO's response to the 10th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The findings and the testimonies of victims and survivors had a profound impact on me personally, on my colleagues, and our Organization.

I said then, and I have said repeatedly since, that WHO has zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, and for inaction against it.

For us, this has been far more than a slogan.

Within days of receiving the Independent Commission's report, I appointed Dr Gaya Gamhewage to lead our response, reporting directly to me.

She immediately set out to consult leaders and staff from across the organization and seek the advice of our Member States.

In October, we launched our Management Response Plan, which is WHO's unified framework for the prevention of, and response to, all types of sexual misconduct.

In a few moments, Gaya and her team will brief you on our progress so far, and lay out our remaining tasks for the rest of this year.

Before they begin, I would like to highlight three key issues:

The first is the audit of sexual misconduct complaints, which was one of the action points under the Management Response Plan.

As you may remember, I asked the Independent Expert Oversight Advisory Committee to oversee an audit by an external provider.

The IEOAC selected PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which audited the investigation and handling of allegations of sexual misconduct by the Office of Internal Oversight Services - IOS - and the Office of Compliance, Risk and Ethics - CRE.

The audit assessed WHO's progress against international benchmarking by MOPAN, The Multilateral Organisation Performance Assessment Network.

The findings of the report will be presented to you today, and the report will be made available through our usual channels.

All recommendations from the audit will be integrated in the Management Response Plan, which is publicly available.

WHO welcomes the report and its findings, which align closely with those of the Independent Commission, and with WHO's Management Response Plan.

We are committed to implementing the recommendations of the audit. Our goal is to meet the MOPAN indicators for the prevention and response to sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment within three years.

Several of the recommendations are already being acted on, and the audit gives direction for further areas of focus, building on the steps we have already taken.

The audit highlights the need to urgently reform the mandate and functions of IOS, as well as the need for greater culture change and protection against retaliation.

Our priority is to approve a new structure for IOS by mid-October, and to implement these changes by January 2023.

We will follow-up with adjustments to the roles and structures of other accountability departments.

In the meantime, we have just this week selected a new Head of Investigations at P6 level.

These actions will help to implement the end-to-end incident management system we have developed for allegations of sexual misconduct, based on a meaningful victim and survivor-centred approach.

The implementation of the audit recommendations will be integrated into the WHO Management Response Plan, and will be monitored by the IEOAC.

Some of the recommendations - for example, culture change - will take longer to implement, and will be integrated into the three-year strategy that will take effect in January next year.

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The second key issue is the status of investigations and managerial misconduct during the 10th Ebola outbreak in DRC.

As you know, WHO handed over all information related to the DRC allegations to the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services last December.

They aim to send us their final reports by the end of this year.

They have informed us that victims and survivors are being referred to relevant services.

At the same time, our victim and survivor services in DRC are continuing, with services provided to 53 survivors and 5 children, so far.

At least 10 survivors have so far accepted support to pursue legal action in local courts, through a WHO-funded project with a women-led legal aid NGO.

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Finally, we have made significant progress in fulfilling our Management Response Plan more broadly.

Ten months into implementation, we have completed 38% of our tasks, and 59% are in progress.

We are making progress on all three pillars of the plan:

Shifting to a victim and survivor-centred approach;

Providing training and implementing accountability mechanisms for all our personnel;

And reforming our structures, systems, and culture.

My team will outline in more detail the key achievements so far, and the challenges ahead.

The next three months will be a critical period, as we work to fully implement the Management Response Plan and transition to the three-year strategy.

In fact, 30 regional focal points are in Geneva this week to develop this three-year strategy.

The changes we want are complex, but critical to maintaining the trust of the communities we serve, our staff, and our Member States.

I, and all of WHO's senior management, are fully committed to reforming and improving our systems for preventing and responding to sexual misconduct of any type.

Your continued guidance and support are critical to achieving these goals. As always, we look forward to your comments and questions.

I thank you.