Stop TB Partnership and UNOPS - The TB Community Must Demand Better
Update: As of 14 April 2026, the Stop TB Partnership Board and UNOPS has offered no public response to the serious concerns detailed here, including the incident of racism by the Executive Director. This lack of concern aligns with a pattern of limited accountability that has eroded trust in the Stop TB Board and UNOPS.
On 16th April, the Partnership announced the recipient of a major grant award (The Kochan Prize). The winner is a Stop TB Partnership Board member (Stop TB Nigeria).
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The UNOPS Stop TB Partnership can no longer credibly claim moral authority while serious, long-standing concerns about governance, accountability, and financial management remain unaddressed.
Leadership Failures and a Toxic Culture
A recent op-ed in UN Insider revisited these issues as Executive Director Dr. Lucica Ditiu approaches her fifteenth year in the role. The concerns build on the 2020 New York Times investigation, which documented multiple substantiated complaints of bullying, harassment, retaliation against staff, and racially inappropriate conduct.
One incident stands out. According to multiple accounts, in an office meeting witnessed by staff, Dr. Ditiu boasted that she had deliberately used the slur “black c*ck” during a speech at a Global Fund meeting on a dare, fully aware of its double meaning. Staff described feeling shocked and angry. These complaints were formally raised with the UNOPS Investigations Unit and the UNOPS Geneva Director, but no action was taken.
Previous UNOPS investigations had confirmed systemic bullying and abuse by Dr. Ditiu, resulting in minimal measures such as executive coaching and staff surveys. The Board’s 2020 “Action Plan” promised reforms to address the racism and harassment. However, oversight of the plan was structured with reporting lines that put Dr. Ditiu in charge of managing and reporting on it - the same person whose conduct led to the plan. This arrangement left staff in disbelief.
More recent cases of abusive behavior are understood to have been raised with UNOPS, though it remains unclear what action, if any, was taken. Staff describe a toxic work environment in which fear of retaliation discourages reporting and many personnel work on consultancy contracts that offer no formal protections.
The senior management team has also remained largely unchanged throughout Dr. Ditiu’s tenure, fostering an entrenched inner circle of loyalists who were personally hired or promoted by Dr. Ditiu. According to the NY Times investigation, Dr. Ditiu’s Deputy Director approached employees and offered them promotions in exchange for silence about allegations of wrongdoing. No action was taken by UNOPS.
The Vice-Chair, Austin Obiefuna, has been a board member since 2013. After this article was published, I was told he strongly supported Dr. Ditiu following the NY Times revelations, and she then put her support behind his Vice-Chair candidacy.
These patterns stands in sharp contrast to other parts of the UN system. The WHO acted decisively when substantiated allegations of racism and abuse were raised against Western Pacific Director Dr. Takeshi Kasai, ultimately removing him from his post. The UNAIDS Board also removed their Executive Director, Michel Sidibe, after findings of abuse and bullying.
The difference in institutional response is glaring: while WHO and UNAIDS acted on zero-tolerance policies on abusive conduct, UNOPS and the Stop TB Partnership Board took no meaningful action.
A Captured Board and Broken Oversight
Concerns about leadership conduct cannot be separated from broader governance issues.
The Partnership operates under the administrative umbrella of UNOPS, an agency best known for the S3i scandal with no formal mandate in global health. Funds raised are often channeled back to organisations and individuals on its board. This structure raises serious questions about the UN’s governance rules and financial procedures.
UNOPS has turned the UN into the airbnb of global governance: it rents out the prestigious blue flag and legal protections to any paying guest willing to cover the management fees, collects its cut, and then disclaims responsibility for what the tenants actually do inside. The host provides the fancy address and basic rules, while staff, communities, and donors are left wondering who’s in charge.
Many board members, including the Vice-Chair, have received direct grants and funding from the Partnership, sometimes awarded at the Executive Director’s direction with no open competition. Others benefit from generous per diems and frequent travel to meetings. These financial relationships create a closed, self-reinforcing loop and would be grounds for legal prosecution in many UN member states.
After this article was released, I was informed that one board member was banned from receiving UNOPS grants due to financial mismanagement of a previous grant - yet they remain a board member.
Fifteen years with no leadership changes is itself a profound governance failure. UN system norms, as outlined by the UN Joint Inspection Unit, limit executive heads to a maximum of 10 years. This standard exists to prevent the concentration of unchecked power, promote fresh ideas, and avoid the entrenchment of personal networks or toxic cultures.
Add to this the reality that board members receive funding from the organization they are supposed to oversee, and you have a systemic governance failure that explains the Stop TB board’s silence.
The Treatment Action Group’s 2020 statement remains painfully accurate today:
“An institution with a leadership and culture that allow bullying and harassment cannot adequately and fully represent the aspirations and demands of communities affected by TB. An organization that covers up racist behavior and sanctions staff for speaking out cannot lead the global charge against a disease that primarily affects Brown and Black people.”
The Human Cost
Many staff resigned or moved on due to these challenges. In July 2025, US funding disruptions forced the Partnership to terminate around 30 colleagues. Many had dedicated years to the fight against TB, yet they received only 30 days’ notice for their jobs and to leave the country. Staff describe not even receiving an email from the Executive Director acknowledging their departures.
Yet the biggest cost falls on people with TB. When a toxic culture drives talent away, a board tolerates conflicts of interest, and unchecked leadership erodes oversight and continuity, such instability weakens the very efforts needed to save lives and amplify affected communities’ voices.
Time for Action
The Stop TB Partnership Board and UNOPS have lost the trust of the global TB community. We no longer accept that a small group of Stop TB beneficiaries speaks for us. They have forfeited the right to claim leadership.
The TB community should demand:
WHO, as the UN agency tasked by member states to lead the global response to infectious diseases, should establish an independent global TB board with transparency, diverse representation, open meetings, and downward accountability to affected communities as a more effective alternative to the current UNOPS TB structure.
Its board meetings should be open to all and online, unlike the current closed door Stop TB board meetings, which are primarily focused on promoting Stop TBs work rather than solving the TB crisis.
A fully independent external review, conducted entirely outside UNOPS control, of harassment and racism complaints, financial mismanagement claims (including conflicts of interest and non-competitive grants), Board oversight, and leadership term limits.
Genuine accountability for the Executive Director’s performance and conduct over her extraordinarily long 15 year tenure, as well as the 13 year board tenure of the current Vice-Chair. It is time for a change in leadership.
Transition to a more suitable host: The Stop TB Partnership performs essential life-saving work through initiatives such as the Global Drug Facility and TB REACH. These functions deserve a more effective and appropriate host than UNOPS, an agency with a record of financial mismanagement and no formal mandate or authority in the global health sector.
A review of duplication between the WHO, UNOPS, and the Global Fund’s TB work. In reality, these entities engage in many overlapping activities across strategy, technical assistance, data systems, events, and communications, resulting in fragmentation, inefficiency, and wasted taxpayer funds.
Ensure greater financial oversight to ensure donors funds are used effectively. In addition to funds being channeled to board members and their organizations by the ED, over $50,000 was spent on a corporate PR video featuring Stop TBs Ex Director promoting Stop TB, while hundreds of thousands were spent on PR agencies to arrange trips to the Davos and Concordia Summits. The video currently has 544 views.
The time for silence is over.
Sincerely,
Concerned Stakeholders in Global TB Efforts
We believe every word you say. You are describing every other day at UNOPS. Please contact us as Justice.unops@proton.me . You are not alone and collectively we can demonstrate this.
This article is accurate, I have heard from multiple staff, former and current. The entire Stop TB Board should be asked to resign, along with Andrew Kirkwood (Head of the UNOPS Geneva Office who knew about all of this and did nothing).