Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
I will be delivering this introduction today on behalf of Dr Tedros, who is in Kazakhstan for the Regional Committee meeting for the WHO European Region. He sends his regrets that he cannot join in person.
“Thank you for taking the time to attend this third quarterly Member State Briefing for 2023 on the prevention of, and response to, sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment.
We thank you, our Member States, for your continued support on this important issue.
Let me start with a summary of where the investigations stand:
As you, our Member States, advised, WHO handed over to the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, all 83 case files related to allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in the 10th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Approximately 25% of those cases pertained to allegations against WHO personnel. The rest were related to other agencies operating in the outbreak.
WHO has received from UN OIOS the investigation reports related to the alleged perpetrators associated with WHO, including consultants and other contractors.
To date, we have received 18 investigation reports, out of which 11 are substantiated and 7 are unsubstantiated.
We have also received 20 closure memoranda, in which OIOS decided to close cases due to insufficient evidence, mistaken identity, or when the alleged perpetrator is not a WHO collaborator.
WHO has taken follow-up action for each of these cases, including information sharing with national authorities, referral to other agencies, and issuing case closure letters to alleged subjects.
While investigation reports are confidential and will not be shared, please be assured that we are taking disciplinary action in all substantiated cases.
Since 2021, we have entered the names of 25 alleged perpetrators of sexual misconduct into the UN ClearCheck database to prevent future employment in the UN system.
More broadly, since the beginning of last year, our investigation team has received 287 allegations of sexual misconduct.
120 have been investigated and 38 have been substantiated so far.
We have dismissed five staff members related to findings of sexual misconduct during this period;
And seven former personnel were informed that their actions would have led to termination, had they still been in service.
Now, I will move to an overview of the implementation of the three-year Strategy for the prevention and response to sexual misconduct.
So far, we have completed 40% of the 50 actions in the first-year implementation plan, and a further 55% are in progress. Only 5% have not yet been initiated.
We are committed to working towards four key results.
First, putting victims and survivors at the heart of our work.
In this regard, I am pleased to announce that we are hiring a Victims and Survivor Support Officer to work in our global team to integrate this fundamental approach in our policies, procedures and practices.
Second - strengthening our policies and procedures for achieving zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, for inaction against it and for preventing retaliation against those who report or bear witness. Most progress this year has rightly focused on this result.
We have both new and revised policies related to sexual misconduct, retaliation, and abusive conduct, and a new Code of Conduct.
To operationalize these policies, we have put in place a new Accountability Framework for sexual misconduct.
This means that everyone who works for or with WHO, including the senior leadership, now has clear and distinct accountabilities for preventing and responding to sexual misconduct.
For the third result – safeguarding our operations from sexual misconduct – we are now using a standardized sexual misconduct risk assessment tool in all our country offices, and in health emergency responses.
This will provide an evidence base to align resources so that mitigation plans can be fully implemented.
The fourth result – culture change – is also progressing.
More personnel are speaking up.
This is partly evidenced by a continued increase in reported allegations.
In addition, the PRS Directors’ global monthly open-door sessions and monthly pulse surveys allow our workforce to openly express their concerns and propose ideas for strengthening our culture to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct.
Dr Gaya Gamhewage, the Director of PRS, will go into more detail about some of the data behind these results and describe the work we are doing to support UN and humanitarian system-wide efforts for responding to the joint challenges we all face.
WHO will host a stakeholder review conference on the 29th of November and 1st of December that will form part of our year one review.
This global event will focus on acknowledging and identifying best practices for addressing sexual misconduct and to exploring the challenges we jointly face.
We will hold the next Member States briefing on sexual misconduct during this stakeholder meeting.
It will have a dedicated roundtable which will focus on how Member States can better collaborate with WHO in this area.
We are inviting Member State representatives to co-chair the sessions.
WHO is grateful for the support we have received from our Member States, and for the knowledge and support shared by our UN partners, humanitarian actors, civil society, academia and experts.
Thank you all once again for your continued engagement in this issue.
As always, we look forward to your comments, questions and advice.”
On behalf of Dr Tedros, I reiterate the commitment of the Director-General and WHO senior leadership to this important area of work.
Thank you. Gaya, back to you.
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