Justin Forsyth’s resignation from his post as the Deputy Executive Director of Unicef shows that we’ve stepped into an era where finally, women have the courage and platform to speak out against all they’ve endured in their lives. The #MeToo movement, which won Time’s person of the year for 2017, revealed the extent to which women have been victims of powerful men abusing their power. In light of these revelations, men like Forsyth, who took their positions for granted, have been removed or were forced to resign.
No institution is safe from the endemic of sexual abuse. Religious institutions, athletic institutions, corporations, government offices, as well as charities have seen high profile abuse. Justin Forsyth’s case was the latest in a string of events that has rocked the development world in recent times.
Before his post as the Deputy Executive Director at Unicef, Forsyth was the chief executive of Save the Children. He was investigated twice during his time there, once in 2011 when concerns were raised about his workplace conduct, and again in 2015 when three female workers complained about inappropriate behavior towards them. Forsyth was accused of sending these women a series of inappropriate texts including comments on their attire and how he felt about them. If they did not respond, he would follow up his texts with an email, asking if they had seen the texts. If they still did not respond, he would ask someone to bring them to his office for a “quick word.”
Following the investigation in 2015, Forsyth issued an unreserved apology to the women involved, and the matter was closed. Forsyth quit his job at Save the Children and joined Unicef in 2016. Unicef has claimed that Save the Children sent them a reference letter for Forsyth but neglected to mention these investigations.
This incident and past revelations have sparked a tremendous backlash against charities and NGOs. Senior MPs in the UK Parliament has called for drastic reviews of the funding charities receive from the UK Government. Oxfam, which underwent a scandal just before the Forsyth case, lost several of their ambassadors, including South African emeritus archbishop Desmond Tutu, the actress Minnie Driver and musician Baaba Maal. 7,000 people stopped their donations to the charity overnight.
Oxfam, which underwent a scandal just before the Forsyth case, lost several of their ambassadors, including South African emeritus archbishop Desmond Tutu, the actress Minnie Driver and musician Baaba Maal. 7,000 people stopped their donations to the charity overnight.
However, is discontinuing donations the solution? There is no doubt that the organizations must accept the blame for how they dealt with the situation. They either covered it up and moved on, or in some cases, fired the victim. The perpetrators of these acts were let off. They continued their jobs or went off into better jobs while their victims were left with nothing but an apology, or in some cases, were punished instead for daring to speak out.
Despite their failings towards the victims in the past, some of these organizations have stepped up to ensure that incidents like this are dealt with appropriately in the future. Oxfam, for example, perhaps because their incidents came to light before the others, have started implementing safeguarding measures against future episodes. They have doubled their budget for the safeguarding team, set up a global database of accredited referees to ensure sex-offenders cannot re-offend at other charities, and improved the whistleblowing mechanism. They will publish a list of all safeguarding incidents to be as transparent as possible. They even sent a letter to their donors last year asking them to continue sending their money to those who need it should they chose to stop their donations.
Most people who work at these charities are good people with good morals. They do incredible work all over the world and bring improvements to communities. Millions of people around the globe are dependent on these charities. In the midst of all these revelations, these are the people who seem to have been left out of the conversation entirely. There are people in Yemen who after three years of war, are facing the world’s largest cholera outbreak. More than half a million Rohingya refugees fled Myanmar and are now in camps in Bangladesh. People in Syria, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and so many other places where aid work is necessary. If the money stops, these are the people who will suffer the most. And that is not fair.
All charities and NGOs should accept that to carry on the work that they do; they need the public’s trust. They need to be transparent, and they need to set up mechanisms to ensure any incidents are dealt with appropriately. The perpetrators are the ones who need to be punished, not the victims and not the millions of people who rely on them. Those who want to donate should only do so for charities that have taken the appropriate measures. Despite the incidents in Oxfam, many people are seeing their efforts to redeem themselves and are standing by them. Actor Simon Pegg is the belief that the organization and the people they support should not be punished for the actions of a few. His statements were echoed by Glastonbury organizers, Emily Eavis and her father, Michael Eavis.
