Opening address by the Director-General of WHO at the quarterly briefing for Member States on the prevention and response to sexual misconduct – October 8, 2024

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

Welcome to this year’s third quarter briefing on our work to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct.

We thank you for your continued attention to this topic and your support of our work.

We are now halfway through our journey to implementing our three-year strategy for preventing and responding to sexual misconduct.

Our goal is to make zero tolerance not just a slogan, but a way of life for our organization, by reforming our policies, procedures and practices.

At the World Health Assembly in May this year, Member States recognized the progress made so far and urged the Secretariat to continue this important journey.

Building on the foundations we’ve laid over the past 18 months, we’ve expanded our work to implement routine safety measures such as screening and training across the organization.

This also applies to the field.

Across our 15 highest priority countries, we have assessed and supported the capabilities to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct in more than 80% of our implementing NGO partners.

We are conducting similar exercises in other countries in most regions.

The WHO Health Emergencies Program is now routinely integrating our new standards into our response to graded emergencies.

We have also developed a guide for partners on tackling sexual misconduct in the response to the Mpox outbreaks in Africa.

Both the African Regional Office and Headquarters are scaling up human resources for sexual misconduct protection in the Mpox response.

Last year, all country representatives were required to conduct an annual sexual misconduct risk assessment with their teams.

And whenever we conduct emergency or other community-based operations, program and incident managers must conduct additional risk assessment and mitigation exercises.

We are now looking at integrating PRSEAH measures into all our programs so that it becomes a central and sustainable approach that prioritises prevention.

From next year, headquarters, regional offices and outposts will also be required to conduct at least one annual sexual misconduct risk assessment and mitigation.

Today I am pleased to announce that Ms Caroline Ouaffo from Cameroon has taken up her duties as WHO’s Victim and Survivor Support Officer.

Caroline has a strong background in law, human rights and protection, and more than twenty years of experience at the United Nations.

Her key role is to work with all relevant colleagues within the organization to strengthen the victim and survivor focused approach to which we are committed.

As a priority, she will explore how this approach can be integrated into our end-to-end sexual misconduct incident management system.

She already works closely with the UN Victims’ Rights Advocate and her counterparts at UNHCR, IOM, the Global Fund and UNOPS. Caroline, we are very happy with you. Welcome!

Dr. Gaya Gamhewage will provide a more detailed briefing in a few moments.

But I would like to highlight two important issues that require your leadership and involvement.

As you will recall, this year’s World Health Assembly asked the Secretariat to develop options to ensure joint responsibility of Member States and the Secretariat for joint operations.

Working together, we have a shared responsibility to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct.

Today we will propose a simple framework for your consideration. Based on your feedback, we will propose a revised framework to the Executive Board in January.

Finally, I want to assure you that I remain committed to ensuring accountability and transparency.

By the end of this year, I will require all Regional Directors, Country Representatives and Executive Management to write to me setting out how and to what extent they have implemented their responsibilities as set out in the PRS Accountability Framework.

The aim of this is to strengthen industrialization through joint ownership. I want to know where we have made progress and where our leaders and managers need more support.

We can only continue this important journey of Zero Tolerance if everyone, at every level, walks step by step and in the same direction. I also write an annual management letter to the Secretary General of the UN.

Thank you all again for your continued efforts and I look forward to your comments, feedback, advice and guidance.

Gaya, over to you.