Me Too and UNICEF

 

Henrietta Fore took up her leadership of UNICEF earlier this year facing a major challenge within her own Executive Office, the resignation of Deputy Director Justin Forsyth over allegations that he behaved inappropriately toward female staff members during his time as chief executive at Save the Children.

Following extensive discussion among staff and consultation with other agencies, Ms. Fore recently took a major step forward in announcing formation of an Independent Task Force to review and provide recommendations on how best UNICEF can systematically prevent and redress workplace gender related discrimination, harassment and abuse of power.

Read about the mandate, composition and TOR of the Independent Task Force here .

The ED also announced that UNICEF has become the first UN agency to be certified at the second level of EDGE (Economic Dividends for Gender Equality) - a three-tiered business certification standard for gender equality.

See the report here.

We should note that UNICEF first set out a clear written policy on discrimination and harassment (including sexual harassment) in 1994. This policy was reinforced by additional directives in 2008 and again in 2012.

In the formation of this Independent Task Force, the EDGE certification, and the training efforts described above in Ian MacLeod’s article, the ED is clearly using the opportunity of the recent resignation to push once again for a change in UNICEF’s internal culture. The test, of course, will come in whether and to what degree such a transformation actually occurs and is sustained over time.