WHO fires senior official over ‘unacceptable’ sexual misconduct
- Fijian doctor Temo Waqanivalu was dismissed ‘following findings of sexual misconduct against him and corresponding disciplinary process’
- WHO has been undergoing reforms after it faced criticism over its slow response to claims of sexual abuse by aid workers sent to the DR Congo during the Ebola outbreak
.png?itok=arIb17P0)
The World Health Organization said Monday it had dismissed a senior official over “findings of sexual misconduct” following at least three reported accusations against him in recent years.
The Fijian doctor “Temo Waqanivalu has been dismissed from WHO following findings of sexual misconduct against him and corresponding disciplinary process”, spokeswoman Marcia Poole said in an email.
The UN health agency, which has been working to improve its record on tackling sexual misconduct and abuse allegations, did not provide more details about its findings.
But media have reported that the top official in WHO’s non-communicable diseases division stands accused of at least three different instances of alleged sexual misconduct since 2017.
WHO priority is to prevent sexual exploitation, says chief
The Associated Press in January named him as the suspected perpetrator in a widely publicised case of alleged sexual assault during the World Health Summit in Berlin last October.
A young British doctor, Rosie James, tweeted at the time that she “was sexually assaulted by a WHO staff” member at the meeting.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus himself responded to her tweet, saying he was “horrified” by the accusations and offering his personal assistance, stressing the agency had “zero tolerance for sexual assault”.
The AP also reported that Waqanivalu had been accused of similar sexual misconduct in 2018, with little consequence for his career.
Instead, at the time the new allegation emerged against him last October, he had been seeking, with high-level support, to become the WHO’s top official in the western Pacific region, the report said.
The Financial Times earlier this month said it had unearthed a third accusation against him, dating back to an event in 2017.
The WHO did not immediately respond to a request to confirm these details.
In her email, Poole stressed that “sexual misconduct of any kind by anyone working for WHO – be it as staff, consultant, partner – is unacceptable”.
She pointed out that over the past-year-and-a-half, “WHO has been implementing a comprehensive programme of reform across the entire organisation to prevent sexual misconduct and ensure that there is no impunity if it does and no tolerance for inaction”.
“We encourage all those who may have been affected by sexual misconduct to come forward through our confidential reporting mechanisms,” she said.
WHO workers in Democratic Republic of Congo accused of sexual abuse
The ongoing WHO reform process comes after the agency faced massive criticism over its slow response to allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers sent to the DR Congo during the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak.
In 2021, an independent report established that 21 WHO employees were among the 83 humanitarian workers accused of sexual exploitation and abuse against dozens of people in the DRC during the Ebola outbreak.
Poole emphasised that WHO participates in the UN “ClearCheck” screening database, aimed to ensure that perpetrators of sexual misconduct are not rehired elsewhere within the UN system.
