WHO's investigation into DRC misconduct is too slow, committee finds

The World Health Organization’s investigation into sexual exploitation and abuse allegations during the 2018 Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo is moving at a slow pace, according to an oversight committee.

The Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for WHO Health Emergencies Programme “expresses its concern about the slow progress of the fact-finding process, and we urge WHO to immediately implement preventive and responsive measures in areas that are potentially high  risk for sexual exploitation and abuse,” said Dr. Felicity Harvey, chair of the committee, during the 74th World Health Assembly meetings on Tuesday.

Abuse allegations: WHO said it was made aware of allegations last September, after which WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus set up a commission to investigate.

But a recent report from the Associated Press found that senior WHO management were informed of the alleged misconduct in 2019 and asked how to handle it. The AP said that internal meetings revealed that the problems were systematic. The allegations focused around sexual misconduct from two doctors in the Ebola response, and included exchanging jobs for sex.

WHO’s commission submitted its first and second reports to Tedros in January and this month. The commission’s work is expected to be completed by the end of August.

An October WHO mission to DRC resulted in recommendations for a system-wide strategy for preventing sexual exploitation and abuse, which has yet to be implemented. WHO has also deployed two prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse coordinators — one to DRC and the other to Ukraine, as well as set up a working group and unit focused on preventing exploitation and abuse.

Agency review: Harvey said the committee recommends that WHO “conduct a cross-organizational review of the current tools, structures, processes and coordination mechanisms to prevent, mitigate and manage all potential risks linked to emergency operations for those staff and communities.”