[ad_1]
The woman in charge of preventing sexual misconduct at the World Health Organization has criticised a male-dominated culture in UN agencies and said the global health body was not a safe place for “all people” despite efforts to root out the problem.
“It is the prevalent culture in the UN system . . . The culture in all our organisations has to improve,” said Gaya Gamhewage, WHO director of prevention and response to sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.
Gamhewage said she stood by comments, conveyed to the Financial Times by people with knowledge of the matter and made more than five years ago, that she would not want her daughter to work at the WHO. “In the past, it was not safe. I stand by what I’ve said,” she said.
“Today, with our new focus and policies, it is safer,” she added. “But I’d be lying if I told you that it was safe for all people.”
The WHO has faced mounting concerns about the adequacy of its processes for reporting allegations of sexual and other forms of misconduct following incidents in recent years.
Gamhewage was charged with improving its ability to tackle sexual misconduct in 2021 after employees in the Democratic Republic of Congo were embroiled in a sexual assault scandal during an Ebola outbreak. In some cases, women were raped after being offered work while others were forced to undergo abortions after being raped, according to a WHO-commissioned report.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, apologised to victims but said he had not been aware of the incidents that occurred between 2018 and 2020 despite visiting the African country several times during that period.
The WHO has also faced other allegations of sexual misconduct, increasing member states’ concerns about governance. This week, the Geneva-based health body dismissed Temo Waqanivalu after the Fijian official had faced three separate accusations of sexual misconduct over five years.
Since Gamhewage’s appointment the WHO has been publishing its own figures on incidents after strengthening its own investigative capacities. It has set aside a core budget of $50mn for 2022-24 for this purpose. In 2022, 192 cases of alleged sexual misconduct were investigated, with 120 completed and 72 still ongoing, Gamhewage said. Reports have increased because of more confidence in the system, not because of an increase in incidents, the WHO said.
In the past two quarters, seven WHO employees were dismissed for sexual misconduct, she said.
“It really is a long journey,” she said. “The rest of the UN has been trying this for the last 20 years.”
Current and former employees including victims have criticised the WHO’s previous inability to tackle misconduct. Some of those who made allegations against Waqanivalu were either discouraged from making any formal report or taking the cases forward.
But Gamhewage said this is changing after the health body implemented a zero-tolerance policy in 2021. “We admitted that we should have done more and we could do more,” she said. “And that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Gamhewage, a Sri Lankan doctor who grew up in south London, said “it is not true” to “characterise WHO as some outlier” but stressed: “We have a bloody problem, right? That’s why we are putting so much effort into it.”
She said 13 cases tied to the DRC scandal are going through the country’s courts, with the WHO sponsoring Goma-based NGO Dynamique des Femmes Juristes, which is providing victims with legal aid. The WHO has provided skills training and psychosocial and medical support to 115 women through a dedicated fund, a number that was “a little higher” than that identified by the WHO-commissioned report.
Highlighting the “existing culture within the UN”, she said: “Only one in three women are directors, only one in three women are country directors.”
Yet she highlighted Tedros’ backing of her drive to clean up the health body, contrasting the WHO’s approach with the broader UN.
“I don’t think I’m popular with everybody,” she added.
If you have insight into related issues that could inform our reporting, please contact donato.mancini@ft.com. We want to hear from you. If your information is particularly sensitive, consider contacting us using one of these secure methods.
[ad_2]
Source link