Cultural change is a cornerstone of WHO’s approach to achieving zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, but it can be complex and time consuming. To ensure that its standards on addressing and preventing sexual misconduct are known and internalized by the entire workforce, WHO’s Department for the Prevention and Response to Sexual Misconduct (PRS) has designed specific training courses for WHO staff, collaborators and partners so that policies and new requirements are translated into practice and new cultural norms across the Organization.
Through the free opensource OpenWHO.org platform, managed by WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, and on iLearn (WHO’s internal learning portal), WHO staff, collaborators and partners have access to a four-part training module to familiarize themselves with WHO’s Policy on Preventing and Addressing Sexual Misconduct (PASM) and its Three-year strategy for preventing and responding to sexual misconduct (3YS). The “Prevention of and response to sexual misconduct” (PRSM) module, guided by Dr Gaya Gamhewage, Director of WHO’s Department for the Prevention and Response to Sexual Misconduct, is “intended to ensure that all staff and collaborators are held to a common standard of conduct and that measures are taken to both prevent and address all forms of sexual misconduct.”
To date more than 45 000 course enrolments have been registered and include implementing partners, ministries of health and WHO’s own workforce.
In a survey conducted after the PRSM course, participants found that the learning and training created “deep awareness that [sexual misconduct] is not in any way acceptable inside nor outside of the Organization,” and that “raising awareness at both management and operational levels allows everyone to pay attention to their actions.” As one participant stated, the course may also “help people who experience sexual misconduct feel empowered to report and make perpetrators aware that their behaviour is unethical.”
Moreover, the PRSM course helps concretize actions of the 3YS, including working system-wide to inform and educate implementing partners that they are accountable for their actions with regards to sexual misconduct and that WHO has zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, for inaction against it and for retaliation against those who bear witness.
In addition to the PRSM course, WHO has been conducting internal webinars to engage and explain to its staff and collaborators about prevention and response to sexual misconduct. For 90 minutes in the morning and in the afternoon, 6 times a year, WHO’s global workforce can connect to the #NoExcuse webinar where Dr Gamhewage, and internal and external experts, take a deep dive into subjects like managing sexual misconduct risks in WHO technical and operational programs and working with our implementing partners to prevent and address sexual misconduct. On average, 2000 to 3000 members of the workforce attend each webinar and many others watch the recording.
During monthly virtual PRS OpenDoor sessions, Dr Gamhewage and her colleagues from WHO’s human resources, legal, ethics and investigations departments respond to important questions from WHO colleagues around the world. Discussions cover subjects like the fear of retaliation from those who report incidents of sexual misconduct, how to handle workplace relationships and sexual misconduct from superiors. The idea is to provide an open and trusting forum for all WHO personnel to air their questions and concerns with regards to prevention and response to sexual misconduct.
The feedback from these sessions is used to inform, improve and strengthen existing policies, such as the WHO policy for preventing and addressing sexual misconduct, WHO policy on preventing and addressing retaliation, and WHO Code of Ethics and professional conduct. The feedback stems from an internal conversation platform on which regular pulse surveys are conducted with participants. This serves as direct means to garner sentiments around sexual misconduct, retaliation and reporting in the workplace.
With the recent implementation of WHO’s Accountability Framework, WHO staff, collaborators, managers, implementing partners and even Member States now have access to clear documentation and tools for their own roles in preventing and responding to sexual misconduct. But to fully embed a culture of zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, continuous learning and training of these same actors on key knowledge and actions to prevent sexual misconduct is critical to making this objective a reality.