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For
UNDP Top Post, UNICEF's Hilde
Johnson, Kiwi Clark or Oil Man Akram
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Muse
UNITED
NATIONS, February 10 --
The names mentioned in competition for the UN Development Program top
job now
include UNICEF's Number Two official, Hilde Johnson, along with UNDP's
#2 Ad
Melkert and New Zealand's Helen Clark, among others. The Norwegian
press
reports that the government in Oslo is deciding whether to "promote
an
American candidate" or whether "former Christian People's Party
Minister Hilde Frafjord Johnson may be appropriate."
Inner City Press asked UNICEF's spokesman for
comment from agency deputy
Hilde Johnson on this
article, "does she oppose nomination to UNDP
Administrator post by her government, would she accept nomination and
the job
if awarded it? What is UNICEF's view?" Inner City Press also
asked
when the current head of UNICEF, Ann Veneman, will finally be available
for a
press conference at the UN.
In response, UNICEF's spokesman merely stated, "the
appointment of a UNDP Administrator is not a decision in which UNICEF
or its
senior management have a role, so we have no comment." But Hilde
Johnson
is "senior management" of UNICEF, and her country's press names her
as a candidate. We'll have more on this. Inner
City Press asked Ban's Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe if the
short
list of candidates for the top UNDP top will be made public, as it was
under Kofi Annan. "No," Ms. Okabe said.
UNICEF's Hilde Johnson, UNDP short list not shown
The New Zealand press is abuzz with the candidacy of
former prime
minister Helen Clark, saying the only blockage may be an American
nomination
for the post. These articles miss,
however, that there are developing world candidates for the post, not
only from
South Africa, but also Ban Ki-moon's current chief of staff Vijay
Nambiar, and
even former Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram,
whose taken up a post with a
Houston-based oil company. UNDP is involved in the mining sector,
from Zimbabwe
through Haiti to Niger. We've put in questions to UNDP and will report
on
responses soon.
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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