POLITICS-UN: Briton Gets Top UNDP Job

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 19 1999 (IPS) - U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan announced Monday the new Administrator head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) will be Mark Malloch Brown of Britain, currently a Vice President at the World Bank.

The surprise choice disappointed Denmark whose Minister for Development Cooperation , Poul Nielson, had been the sole candidate of the 15-member European Union.

Brown, who is the World Bank’s Vice President for External Affairs, was a former partner in a communications management firm, the Sawyer Miller Group. His resume notes that he advised Corazon Aquino when she ran against Ferdinand Marcos for the presidency of the Philippines in the bitterly-fought election of 1986.

A former deputy chief of the emergency unit at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Malloch Brown founded the Economist Development Report, a monthly newsletter on the aid community, published by the British Economist magazine.

Nielson was the only officially declared candidate for the UNDP job which falls vacant in June, with the departure of James Gustave Speth, a U.S. national.

“The candidature of Poul Nielson received unusually wide support among both UNDP’s donor countries and the developing countries,” Danish Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen said Monday.

Nielson’s candidature for the UNDP job was “a natural consequence of Denmark’s strong and continued commitment” to the development work of the United Nations, he said. Petersen said that Nielson’s subsequent endorsement by the EU was seen as “recognition of Denmark’s development policy.”

“The United Nations has missed an opportunity of getting a competent and experienced leader with the best qualifications for getting the UNDP out of trouble and back on track,” said a disappointed Petersen.

The UNDP, which has an annual budget of about 900 million dollars, has been described as the UN’s largest single source of grant aid for development cooperation.

Both in 1998 and 1999, Denmark was the second largest contributor to UNDP, ranking behind the United States.

The Danish contributions amounted to 84.5 million dollars in 1998 and 85.3 million dollars in 1999 – compared with U.S. contributions of 95.5 million dollars in 1998 and 100 million dollars in 1999.

In contrast, the British contribution to UNDP totaled some 50 million dollars in 1998 and 56.6 million dollars this year.

According to a published report last week the United States had expressed reservations about Nielson, while Malloch-Brown not only had strong support from Washington but also from Canada and Australia among other nations.

A spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations described Brown as “having more competence and the heft to do this.”

The appointment of the UNDP Administrator is a prerogative of Annan but traditionally the Secretary-General consults the 36- member Executive Board of the agency and also developing nations.

Annan announced his choice to the president of the European Union, a rotating seat currently held by Germany, and to the chairman of the Group of 77, a coalition of 133 developing nations. Additionally, he also briefed the chairman of the UNDPs’ Executive Board.

Annan asked all three heads to brief their members and get back to him before the end of the week. The Secretary-General’s nomination has to be confirmed by the 185-member General Assembly which is considered a formality.

Annan stressed that the appointment of the Administrator was his “prerogative.”

“Look at my record in choosing my staff,” Annan reportedly told the three ambassadors, “I have the right to choose someone with whom I can work comfortably.”

Brown was also picked over Nielson because Annan feels he has to work closely with the World Bank. Annan had said he had to choose someone who was efficient, a good administrator and one who could generate more resources for UNDP.

According to Annan, Brown had the right credentials for the job.

U.S. nationals have held the job of UNDP Administrator for nearly 33 years. When the EU endorsed Nielson for the job, it was also aiming to break that monopoly.

Since 1966, UNDP has been headed by Paul Hoffman, Rudolph Petersen, Bradford Morse, William Draper and Gus Speth – all U.S. nationals. The only other non-American, although a westerner, was David Owen of Britain who served as co-Administrator with Hoffman.