Probe into WHO racism
UN health chief orders an internal investigation into allegations of misconduct
THE head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has ordered an internal investigation into allegations that the UN health agency is rife with racism, sexism and corruption, after a series of anonymous emails with explosive charges were sent to top managers last year.
Three emails addressed to the WHO directors – and obtained by Associated Press – complained about “systematic racial discrimination” against African staffers and alleged other instances of wrongdoing, including claims that some of the money intended to fight Ebola in the Congo was misspent.
Last month, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told staffers he had instructed the head of WHO’s office of internal oversight to look into the charges raised by the emails. He confirmed that directive yesterday.
Critics, however, doubt that WHO can effectively investigate itself and have called for the probe to be made public.
The first email, sent last April, claimed there was “systematic racial discrimination against Africans at WHO” and that African staffers were being “abused, sworn at (and) shown contempt to” by their Geneva-based colleagues.
Two further emails addressed to WHO directors complained that senior officials were “attempting to stifle” investigations into such problems and alleged other instances of wrongdoing, including misspent Ebola funds.
The last email, sent in December, labelled the behaviour of a senior doctor helping to lead the response against Ebola as “unacceptable, unprofessional and racist”, citing a November incident at a meeting where the doctor reportedly “humiliated and belittled” a subordinate from the Middle East.
Tedros – a former health minister of Ethiopia and WHO’s first African director-general – said investigators looking into the charges “have all my support” and that he would provide more resources if necessary.
“To those that are giving us feedback, thank you,” he told a meeting of WHO’s country representatives in Nairobi last month. “We will do everything to correct it if there are problems.”
But Tedros refuted claims that WHO’s hiring policies were skewed, arguing that his top management team was more geographically diverse and gender-balanced than any other UN organisation after adopting measures to be more inclusive.
“There is change already happening,” he said during the December staff meeting.
WHO’s in-house investigation into misconduct comes after other UN agencies have been rocked by harassment complaints.
At UNAIDS, chief Michel Sidibe agreed to step down after an independent report concluded in December that his “defective leadership” had created a toxic working environment, with staffers asserting there was rampant sexual harassment, bullying and abuse of power.
The author of the anonymous WHO emails also charged there were “crooked recruitment and selection” processes “tantamount to fraud, corruption and abuse of authority”.
In the latest anonymous message, the author singled out the supposedly flawed hiring process of a senior director in WHO’s emergencies department, suggesting that might have led to mistakes being made by incompetent officials involved in efforts to stop Ebola in the Congo.
Some staffers feared funds donated to stem the spread of the deadly virus “have not been used judiciously,” the email said, warning such blunders could undermine WHO’s credibility.
Oyewale Tomori, a Nigerian virologist who previously worked at WHO, said: “After what I’ve seen at WHO, I have no doubt that everything in those emails is true.” |