Who
Will US Send
to Head
UNICEF & WFP, While
UN Refuses to Tell Press
of UNDP Process?
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
January 27 – With the UN
system facing 40% budget cuts
from the US, on January 25 UN
Development Program chief
Helen Clark confirmed she will
leave on April 19. On January
26, UN spokesman Stephane
Dujarric refused to disclose
when Inner City Press asked
the process to pick a
replacement.
The
unwritten process for UNICEF,
the UN children's agency, and
the World Food Program is
better known. The current Democrat
Party appointees, Anthony Lake
and Ertharin Cousin
respectively, are expected to
resign and Secretary General
Antonio Guterres will ask the
US, presumably through Nikki
Haley, for three American
names.
Will it go that
way this time? Will Trump accept
the decision being made
between three names? If France
was able to impose the incompetent
Herve Ladsous on the UN, and
Spain the
censor Cristina Gallach,
will even the three-name game
now stand?
Beginning
on the day Nikki Haley arrives
at the UN, this will be an
Inner City Press series.
Even
further back than the US has
controlled the UN Department
of Political Affairs (through
Lynn Pascoe and Jeffrey
Feltman, to whom we have
questions pending), it has
held WFP: Catherine Bertini,
James Morris, Josette Sheeran,
Etharin Cousin.
And UNICEF, under
both political parties (see,
Veneman): Bellamy, Veneman,
Anthony Lake.
As to
UNDP, while Inner City Press
first reported the interest of
France's Segolene Royal in
replacing Clark, and the UK's
David Miliband has also been
mentioned (but see below).
On January
26, Inner City Press asked UN
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
what the process will be, and
about (UN) transparency. Video
here, from the UN
transcript:
Inner City Press:
now that Helen Clark has said
that she'll be leaving by 19
April, can you describe what
the process will be that
António Guterres will use to
choose a new administrator of
UNDP (United Nations
Development Program)?
Has he received nominations,
for example… [Inner City Press
said Miliband and Segelone
Royal, the UN did not transcribe.]
Spokesman: No, we was…
he was… He was informed
by Helen Clark of her desire
to step down at the end of
her… of her term. There
is a well-determined process
of consultations between the
Secretary-General and the
Executive Board of UNDP on
finding a successor, and that
process will be followed.
Inner City Press:
Yesterday, he met with the
French Minister of Development
and Francophonie. I was
kind of expecting some kind of
a readout. Did I miss
one? Was one put out?
Spokesman: No, there was
no readout that I know of.
Inner City Press: And I
wanted to ask, I guess,
related to that, there are
some in the South Korean media
asking to know where it's
available to find the daily
schedules that are put up
every day. Are they just
thrown out, or is there some
repository of who met with the
Secretary-General…?
Spokesman: Well, I'm
glad you're… you've asserted a
role as the Spokesman for the
South Korean media but they
can look on the website, and
everything should be archived.
Where?
On January
26 Inner City Press asked UK
Ambassador to the UN Matthew
Rycroft, video
here, UK transcript:
Inner City Press:
Does the UK support David
Miliband to head UNDP?
Amb Rycroft: We look forward
to working with Helen Clark in
her final months in office and
with her successor, and no
further comment. [end]
Some UN
sources have told Inner City
Press this post, "like UNICEF
and WFP, may go to an
American." We'll see.
Of the
candidates to replace the
increasingly discredited Ban
Ki-moon as UN Secretary
General, Clark was the most
active on social media.
She also, as
Inner City Press exposed,
had UNDP go after a UNDP
staff who dared tweet
criticism of her.
She was once
getting a tobacco award but
when exposed
by Inner City Press,
turned it down. There's more
to be said but the news of the
day is the impending budget
cuts.
And why WAS
France minister for
development meeting
with and lobbying
Antonio Guterres on January
25? We'll have more on this.
***
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