Informations à venir
Director, Prevention & Response to Sexual Misconduct at World Health Organization (WHO)
“Everyone, without exception, has a right to a safe and respectful workplace in which they can contribute and thrive. Harassment, especially sexual harassment, violates this and must not be tolerated. #NoExcuse”
Table ronde
Gaya Gamhewage
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM | Round Table
Dr. Gaya Gamhewage is a medical doctor and public health expert with three decades of experience in the health sector. She has worked with the World Health Organization for 21 years, mostly leading institutional capacity-building initiatives and innovative “start-up” initiatives for public health and organizational challenges.
During her career at WHO, Dr Gamhewage played a key role in institutionalizing WHO’s work in health emergencies. She led new areas of work for WHO including in health communications & behavioral change; risk communications & community engagement; and most recently, lifelong learning for health and established the world’s largest free public health learning platform which currently has more than 7 million subscriptions.
In July 2021 she was appointed by the WHO Director-General to lead the Organization’s work on the prevention and response to sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment. She was confirmed as the Director for Prevention of and Response to Sexual Misconduct in 2022 and currently leads WHO’s work in this area.
She started her career as a trained journalist and then shifted to study and practice medicine before moving on to public health. Prior to joining WHO, Dr Gamhewage worked for national and international NGOs including the Save the Children UK and Norway and was the Director of Community Health for Sarvodaya, a Sri Lankan NGO working in more than 15,000 villages.
Dr. Gamhewage also holds two master’s Degrees in addition to her medical degree – in International Health and in International Policy-making and Negotiation. She has experience in supporting countries to build up their own institutional and human resource capacity to protect the health of their populations. Other areas of her expertise include institutional capacity building; change management; education & learning for health; public health programming; negotiation & advocacy; knowledge networks & ecosystems management; child rights and protection; psychosocial health programming; and community engagement and risk communications. She is also an experienced trainer, facilitator and certified professional coach.