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WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the Member States quarterly briefing on PRSEAH – 9 June 2022

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Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

Good morning, and thank you for joining us.

Since reports of sexual exploitation and abuse in WHO’s response to the Ebola outbreak in DRC first surfaced in 2020, the Secretariat has made substantial progress – in addressing the specific instances themselves, as well as making changes to our systems and culture.

As you know, we provided an update to Member States during a dedicated session on PRSEAH at the World Health Assembly two weeks ago.

The next six months are a transition period, as we complete the work of the Management Response Plan, and begin implementing our three-year strategy for expanding changes across the Organization.

As promised, our Head of Investigations, Lisa McClennon, and her team have completed their inquiries into the entire backlog of cases of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

They are also meeting the 120-day benchmark for investigating all new cases of sexual misconduct.

You can follow progress on the online dashboard.

The focus of today’s briefing is how the Secretariat is implementing changes in emergency operations, including in our response to the war in Ukraine.

Sexual misconduct can happen anywhere, but the risk of it happening is much higher during health emergencies.

We now have a dedicated PRSEAH team within the WHO Health Emergencies Programme to support this work.

During my recent visits to Ukraine and Poland, I met with our PRSEAH experts on the ground to discuss how we can further strengthen our work and protect affected communities within Ukraine, as well as refugees in neighbouring countries.

Last week, in Slovakia, I met with colleagues who raised several issues, including the need for effective compliance mechanisms for the affected population and the lack of referral services for gender-based violence.

These are the types of issues that we have raised in previous briefings, but they take on an even more urgent nature in the tragic situation in Ukraine and surrounding countries.

In a few moments, Dr Socé Fall will provide a more detailed briefing.

Thank you as always for your engagement on this issue. We remain committed to zero tolerance, to transparency, to change, to listening, and to making WHO a leader in this area.

I look forward to hearing your comments, questions and advice.

Socé, over to you.