Indian-origin UNICEF UK chief quits after raising bullying concerns

London, September 24

Sacha Deshmukh, the Indian-origin chief of the UK arm of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has resigned, months after taking cost of the submit after elevating bullying issues towards the UN charity’s chair.

Deshmukh, who took over because the Executive Director of UNICEF UK in April, is believed to have raised some issues round bullying behaviour by a senior.

“The board of trustees of UNICEF UK announces with regret that it has accepted the resignation of Executive Director Sacha Deshmukh. He will remain in post until the new interim leadership is announced. The search for a new Executive Director will start immediately,” a UNICEF UK assertion stated on Wednesday.

“In the meantime, the board has every confidence in the strengths of the existing executive team and the dedicated staff as a whole to take forward the charity at this vital time with its work focused on improving the lives of the world’s children,” it stated.

According to the charity sector publication ‘The Third Sector’, Deshmukh is claimed to have known as for an investigation into the allegations of bullying towards Douglas Alexander – a former UK authorities minister who has been Chair of UNICEF UK since 2018.

He reportedly raised issues with the board of trustees final month that about 10 employees had skilled comparable patterns of “aggressive and bullying behaviour”.

“These allegations come as a shock to the board as no formal grievance has ever been acquired concerning any of those points.

“However, as you would expect, we take this very seriously and a full internal review has been launched today – carried out by two trustees and one external adviser – and they will report back to the board as quickly as possible. It would be wrong to discuss this further while the investigation is ongoing,” a UNICEF UK spokesperson stated, including that Alexander continues to have the help of the board.

Deshmukh is known to be upset to be leaving the charity, which he feels strongly dedicated to regardless of the alleged occasions.

“After many years of admiring UNICEF UK, it is an amazing privilege to be joining its team and become a part of the UNICEF family,” he had stated on the time of his appointment to the submit earlier this 12 months.

“UNICEF’s work supporting children worldwide and in the UK is more important than ever before. Globally, one in four children are affected by war, and UNICEF’s engagement with generous supporters in the UK is critical to providing vital support to children around the world. I am looking forward to working with an incredible group of colleagues as we create the next exciting chapter for UNICEF UK in the 2020s,” he stated at the moment.

Alexander, as Chair of Trustees, had praised Deshmukh’s “impressive record” of accomplishment within the public, personal and non-profit sectors.

“Sacha absolutely shares our passion for working to address the needs of the world’s most vulnerable children and young people… The Board and I are looking forward immensely to working with Sacha to build an ever stronger, more impactful UNICEF UK together,” he stated in January.

Deshmukh joined UNICEF UK from Smart Energy GB, the government-backed marketing campaign to assist individuals perceive good power meters, the place he had been Chief Executive since 2013.

He has beforehand spoken about his Indian heritage and historic join with UNICEF, following his father’s migration from Pakistan to India as a younger refugee post-Partition in 1948.

His father later got here to England in 1962 in pursuit of a college schooling and met his mom when she stopped off within the UK on her strategy to the US in 1968.

Deshmukh grew up in west London earlier than occurring to check at Cambridge University. PTI