Diplomats, donors concerned about sex abuse reports at WHO

British, European and American diplomats and donors have voiced serious concerns about how the World Health Organization handled sex abuse allegations involving its own staff during an outbreak of Ebola in Congo, as reported this week by The Associated Press

WHO Congo Sex Abuse Reaction (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

British European and American diplomats and donors have voiced serious concerns about how the World Health Organization handled sex abuse allegations involving its own staff during an outbreak of Ebola in Congo as reported this week by The Associated Press.

On Tuesday, the AP published an investigation documenting that senior WHO management was informed of multiple sex abuse allegations involving at least two of its doctors during the epidemic in 2018.

A notarized contract obtained by the AP showed that two WHO staffers signed off on an agreement between WHO’s Dr. Jean-Paul Ngandu and a young woman he allegedly impregnated in Congo. In it, Ngandu promised to pay the young woman money, cover her pregnancy costs and buy her a plot of land. The contract was made “to protect the integrity and reputation of the organization,” Ngandu said.

“The U.K. has a zero tolerance approach when it comes to sexual exploitation and harassment — and that extends to all international organizations that we fund,” said Simon Manley, the U.K.’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva. “We are speaking with WHO and other major donors as a matter of urgency to establish the facts." Britain is WHO's second biggest donor, after the U.S.

The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment.

WHO has declined to comment on the specific allegations reported by the AP and said it is waiting for the results of a panel created last October to investigate sexual abuse during the Congo outbreak involving WHO staffers.

“What’s alarming is that WHO seems to be keeping this abuse quiet and not publicly condemning these allegations,” said Clare Wenham, an assistant professor of global health policy at the London School of Economics, who has studied gender and funding issues at WHO. “There's a lot of talk about giving WHO more money but I don't think any government should be committing to that until we know it's an organization we can trust."

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the agency's third-largest funder, said it expects U.N. agencies to conduct thorough investigations into sexual abuse as quickly as possible.

“Our role as a funder is to hold organizations that receive grants from the foundation to the highest standards of transparency and accountability, and to insist that they take steps to prevent misconduct in the future,” the foundation said.

Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Global Health Law at Georgetown University, said the ultimate responsibility for WHO’s Ebola response lies with director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus The AP found that one of the doctors accused of sexual harassment, Boubacar Diallo, bragged about his relationship to Tedros, who mentioned Diallo during a speech in January 2019. The AP spoke with three women who said Diallo offered them WHO jobs in exchange for sex; Diallo denied the claims.

“I find it hard to believe Tedros would have known about these allegations and done nothing,” Gostin said. “The (director-general) must meet the highest ethical standards so we must understand what he knew and when he knew it. ... Dr. Diallo may have used his relationship with Tedros as leverage in sexual exploitation, but it would not be Tedros’ fault if he wasn’t aware of it.”

Gostin said WHO staffers who were aware of sexual misconduct claims but failed to act should be punished.

Balazs Ujvari, a spokesman for the European Commission, said it would “thoroughly monitor the investigations” by the AP. He said the commission is ready to review or suspend funding "for any partner who is not living up to the required high ethical and professional rules and standards.” Last year, the European Commission gave WHO about 114 million euros ($138 million).

The World Bank said it is “deeply concerned” about the new sex abuse allegations at WHO. The bank paused its negotiations with Congolese authorities for new financing to agencies, including WHO, last year when reports of general sex abuse during the Ebola outbreak surfaced.

“We review our relationship with any organization whose standards are in question,” the World Bank said in an email.

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Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.