Unicef executive faces questions over inappropriate behaviour

A senior UN executive faces questions over his conduct after it emerged that he apologised to female colleagues for inappropriate behaviour while working at a British charity.

Three women had come forward to complain about Justin Forsyth, deputy executive director of the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), in 2011 and 2015 while he was running Save the Children UK, the British charity confirmed. Mr Forsyth was accused of sending inappropriate texts on what young female staff were wearing, the BBC reported.

The episode is the latest controversy to rock charities in the UK amid a continuing debate about whether aid agencies should be held to higher moral standards.

Save the Children said it had not followed proper procedure and was launching a review of its actions. Mr Forsyth, based in New York, told the broadcaster that his apologies for “unsuitable and thoughtless conversations” had been accepted and he believed the issue had been closed.

Unicef said that it welcomed the executive’s decision to acknowledge his mistakes, but told the BBC it was “discussing this matter with Mr Forsyth and his former employer so we can take appropriate action”.

Unicef said it was not aware of the complaints against Mr Forsyth at the time of his recruitment. The apology made by Mr Forsyth came to light after days of damaging reports that highlighted how senior aid workers for Oxfam had paid sex workers in Haiti during reconstruction efforts after the earthquake there in 2010.

Seven people were sacked or resigned, including the country head, who went on to work with another charity in a senior position.

A prominent British historian and classicist, Mary Beard, triggered a backlash after defending aid workers in a tweet in which she questioned “how hard it must be to sustain ‘civilised’ values in a disaster zone”. In response, Ms Beard wrote on Twitter, “I just wish we were not so confident of our moral rectitude.”

A former senior aid worker told The National, “We shouldn’t get into that moral relativism debate. The key issue is one of power. It seems to me wrong that we should in any way bargain away our morals because of an extreme set of circumstances.”

Dominic Nutt, a former aid worker and veteran of 35 humanitarian emergencies, said: “Because you’re in that environment, you have to hold yourself to a higher moral code. It’s not a conscious thing, it’s just how it is.”

The UK’s charity regulator has also been criticised for failing to investigate more deeply the problems at Oxfam.

Justin Forsyth, while head of Save the Children, had to apologise to female staff for unsuitable texts