Review finds WHO support for DRC sex abuse survivors 'not sufficient'

The World Health Organization owes much more assistance to victims of sexual exploitation and abuse during the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to an independent review. The case was one of the largest sexual misconduct scandals in United Nations history and initially involved more than 50 women who accused Ebola aid workers, including WHO personnel, of sex-for-work schemes. After the media exposed the misconduct and an independent investigation revealed the extent of the abuses, WHO set up a $2 million Survivor Assistance Fund to support 115 victims and survivors with psychological aid, work opportunities, and legal assistance for those who decided to file a lawsuit in the local courts. That constitutes the U.N.’s usual package of support in such cases, according to Hervé Gogo, coordinator of the Independent Commission that WHO tasked to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in the country. But this support was “not sufficient” for the victims in the DRC, Gogo said. “There is a need to make progress and to evolve to a specific and targeted assistance to victims and survivors,” said Gogo, who was tasked with reviewing to what extent WHO has implemented the recommendations laid out by the commission back in 2021. He presented his preliminary findings in a WHO press conference on Friday. An example of how WHO can expand its support includes supporting victims who’d like to resume their studies or providing scholarships, Gogo said, adding that “not all the victims want to be hairdressers or tailors.” WHO member states, meanwhile, need to “make some provision” to enable the agency to provide the victims some form of compensation “without waiting” for court decisions. Gogo said there are no legal provisions enabling entities such as WHO to pay direct reparations to victims of sexual exploitation and abuse without a court decision. Typically, if a perpetrator is found responsible and liable, that individual is supposed to pay reparations — not WHO or the organization employing them, he explained. However, that isn’t suitable in the case of the victims in the DRC, he said, because victims face a major hurdle: They cannot identify their perpetrators as many of the Ebola workers used false identities. “How then do you make a lawsuit that will really acknowledge your right to reparation?” he said. “I think that there is a need to change the paradigms not only in WHO but broadly in the U.N. system,” he added. U.N. rules prevent WHO from paying reparations. “But something must be done,” he said. Not ‘transformative’ enough WHO has been implementing a series of changes to prevent cases of sexual exploitation and abuse. In the case of the DRC, for which WHO has received intense public scrutiny, that meant setting up a $2 million Survivor Assistance Fund. But critics have questioned those moves, with The New Humanitarian reporting that women received only one-off payments of $250. Reem Alsalem, U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, has called on the U.N. agency to provide victims reparations in addition to the fund. “Reparations need to be transformative, so they cannot and shouldn't be confused with assistance,” she said during a Devex event inMay on the sidelines of the 76th World Health Assembly. In an interview with Devex published last month, WHO said it is also supporting children born as a result of sexual exploitation and abuse in the DRC, which may include education grants, medical fees, and DNA testing, as part of an MoU with U.N. Population Fund and in partnership with UNICEF and the U.N. Office of the Victims’ Rights Advocate. ‘Nothing to hide’ Gogo also assessed how WHO implemented the Independent Commission’s recommendation for WHO to investigate potential managerial misconduct and to pursue further investigation of cases of sexual exploitation and abuse. The Independent Commission’s 2021 report found that actions by WHO senior officials in the DRC were not in line with WHO’s policy in place at the time on preventing and combating sexual exploitation and abuse. For example, some officials failed to report such incidents to more senior officials or proactively pursue a reported incident. The commission recommended WHO impose disciplinary sanctions on those who fail to report potential sexual abuse and exploitation incidents, and start an internal investigation to “identify individual responsibilities for the failure to activate the investigation procedures” as per the organization’s policy. In response, WHO placed two senior staff on administrative leave and sought the assistance of the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services, or OIOS, to conduct an investigation. However, because of a “loophole” in WHO’s old policy, the investigation concluded early this year that no managerial misconduct took place and the staffers returned to work for WHO. That decision created a firestorm of criticism against WHO, including from the co-chairs of the Independent Commission. But on Friday, Gogo skirted questions on whether he deemed it appropriate that no senior manager has lost their job in relation to the events in the DRC, saying it goes beyond his mandate. “The Independent Commission said please undertake an action to assess any managerial failure, without saying that you have to sentence or you have to punish X or Y … and please be guided by the outcome of this investigation implicitly. And this is what has happened,” he said. “So me as a reviewer … I think that WHO has fulfilled this mandate. Now whether someone has not been … punished, or suspended, or fired, that will be going beyond my mandate here.” Gogo, however, came more strongly when it came to allegations that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had early knowledge of what was taking place in DRC. Gogo said the Independent Commission had access to “every single email” from the day media reported on the cases to when the Independent Commission was set up. “So we have had all the information, and when I say every email, including the email of the DG and all his collaborators, including the departing chief of staff,” he said. “I have been privy of the U.N. OIOS report. There was not a single finding about any decision or any information that was shared with the DG. So it's not that we wanted to hide anything. There's nothing to hide,” he said.