Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, and welcome to our first quarterly update for this year on preventing and responding to sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.
I appreciate Member States’ continued attention to this critical issue, and the support you have provided.
As you know, this issue has been a top priority for me since the reports of sexual exploitation and abuse in DRC in 2020.
My approach is based on three core principles: transparency, accountability and ownership by leadership.
First, transparency. That is why I chose to appoint an Independent Commission and make its findings publicly available.
That is why we brief Member States and stakeholders regularly, and why we welcome scrutiny of our work on PRSEAH.
The Independent Expert Oversight Advisory Committee is monitoring progress in implementing our ambitious Management Response Plan.
I also personally monitor the implementation of the Management Response Plan every week with the Directors and senior leadership who are responsible for this task.
To date, 86% of the planned 190 actions of the Management Response Plan are either completed or in process.
WHO has now handed over the investigations into allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in DRC, as well as cases of possible managerial misconduct, to the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services.
Their investigators are now on the ground in DRC.
We are also continuing the support victims and survivors. So far, we have disbursed about 250 thousand US dollars from the Survivor Assistance Fund I set up last year, even in cases where the alleged perpetrator works for another UN agency or partner.
We will continue to report on the number of investigations related to SEAH, and their status, beyond the DRC events.
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The second core principle is accountability.
We are strengthening our accountability functions, starting with the Investigations Service.
We now have a dedicated, qualified team of 15, mostly women, who manage investigations into all forms of misconduct, with priority given to sexual misconduct.
The team is led by the Head of Investigations, who now reports directly to the Executive Board, and who has the independence to investigate anyone, regardless of rank or grade, and examine every complaint made.
The new team is on track to complete investigations into the backlog of SEAH cases by the World Health Assembly, and has set an ambitious 120-day benchmark for completing all new SEAH investigations.
Trust in the system is growing, as evidenced by an increase in the willingness of our personnel to come forward with complaints of sexual misconduct.
We have a long way to go, but as we increase the speed, effectiveness and standard of investigations, accountability increases, and the perception of impunity decreases.
Of course, increased accountability must be supported by increased capacity.
I was encouraged that the Executive Board endorsed my request for a core budget of 50 million US dollars for this biennium.
I thank those Member States that have allocated funds for PRSEAH work. As you know, WHO’s investment in PRSEAH is the largest across the United Nations.
We are moving quickly. I have set up a dedicated department reporting directly to me headed by a full-time Director;
We are placing senior PRSEAH experts at P5 level in each Regional Director’s Office;
And we are hiring 12 P4s in priority country offices.
In the remaining 145 country offices, we are identifying and will train PRSEAH focal points. The personnel in our AFRO Region have already begun coming on board over the last few weeks.
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The third core principle is ownership by leadership.
While every person who works for WHO has a responsibility to uphold behaviour to prevent, detect and respond to SEAH, leaders have an added responsibility to create the right environment, to take the right measures to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct, and to set the right example.
The Regional Directors and I discuss PRSEAH on a regular basis, to ensure we have an aligned approach across the organization.
This month, we wrote a joint letter to every member of our workforce, re-affirming our commitment to zero tolerance for SEAH and for inaction against it, and outlining what we expect from each of our personnel, regardless of the type of contract they hold.
Earlier this month, all WHO personnel participated in our annual Goals week, where we align each person’s plan of work to the 13th General Programme of Work.
All leaders, at all levels, were required to lead discussions with their teams on PRSEAH, using tools developed for the purpose.
Each team was required to select or develop a team objective on PRSEAH, which will be part of their performance evaluation.
This is just a first step on our organization-wide No Excuse campaign against SEAH.
We will follow with a series of activities for all personnel, with dedicated activities for all managers and leaders to foster greater ownership.
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The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and the flood of refugees in neighbouring countries creates a high-risk environment for sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.
While we do not control the situation or the environment, we are committed to taking all possible measures to address the risks proactively.
Some of the actions we have taken so far include:
Recruiting a PRESEAH coordinator, who will start next week, based in Poland;
Embedding PRSEAH measures in our Ukraine response, and tracking activities through the Incident Management System;
Screening everyone deployed in the Clear Check databases;
Monitoring the proportion of women deployed to the field to identify bottlenecks – so far women make up 30% of deployments to Ukraine;
Requiring each person deployed to complete mandatory training on SEA, and read and sign the WHO policy directive;
Collaborating with the UN and Interagency Standing Committee to engage affected populations on preventing, detecting and reporting of SEA;
Ensuring awareness raising materials are available in local languages, and that everyone knows how to raise a complaint;
And working with UNFPA, UNHCR and others to map the services victims can access.
A further challenge, not just in Ukraine but in many countries, is that services for gender-based violence are extremely weak or missing.
The humanitarian response for Ukraine must allocate resources both for SEAH prevention and also for gender-based violence referral services.
Thank you once again to all Member States for your continuing engagement, questions, suggestions and guidance.
Jane, back to you.