Reproduced as listed — there is nothing to gloat about: SG BAN announces personnel changes
From the Highlights of the UNHQ/NY regular noon briefing:
Chef de Staff Vijay Nambiar announced that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has accepted the offer of resignation of the following senior officials and has conveyed to them his deep appreciation for their services to the United Nations. In making this decision, the Secretary-General has taken into account various factors, including the need to change with continuity, ongoing discussion on the restructuring plan, and the need to promote mobility at all levels. The resignation will take effect on the expiry date of the current contract up to June 2007 unless otherwise decided:
Mr. Nobuaki Tanaka, Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs
Mr. Jose Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs
Mr. Jian Chen, Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management
Mr. Ibrahim A. Gambari, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs
Mr. Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information
Mr. Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Africa
Mr. Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, High Representative for the Least-Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States
Ms. Mervat Tallawy, Executive-Secretary, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA)
Mr. Hak-su Kim, Executive-Secretary, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
Mr. Hedi Annabi, Assistant Secretary-General, Department of Peace-keeping Operations
Mr. Patrizio M. Civili, Assistant Secretary-General, Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Mr. Carlos Lopes, Assistant Secretary-General and Director for Political Affairs (Executive Office of the Secretary-General)
Mr. Toshiyuki Niwa, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF
Ms. Rima Salah, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF
Mr. Kunio Waki, Deputy Executive Director for Programmes, UNFPA
The following appointments of senior officials at UN Headquarters in New York have been made by the Secretary-General. Other senior appointments not announced today, including those posts subject to ongoing discussion with the Member States, will be made in due course through a consultative process:
Department of Economic and Social Affairs: Mr. Sha Zukang (China)
Department of Political Affairs: Mr. B. Lynn Pascoe (United States of America)
Department of Public Information: Mr. Kiyotaka Akasaka (Japan)
Department of General Assembly and Conference Management: Mr. S. Muhammad Shaaban (Egypt)
[The UN News Centre later mapped out who these four are, and who they will be replacing:
B. Lynn Pascoe, currently US Ambassador to Indonesia, was appointed Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, succeeding Ibrahim Gambari, a Nigerian. He has previously served as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and US Special Negotiator for Nagorno-Karabakh and Regional Conflicts. He was US Co-Chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group seeking negotiated resolution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. He has also served as Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, Province of China, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the East Asian and Pacific Bureau of the State Department, and Deputy US Chief of Mission in Beijing...He speaks mandarin Chinese.
Ambassador Sha Zukang, currently China’s Permanent Representative to the UN Office at Geneva, was named Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs in succession to José Antonio Ocampo of Colombia.
Kiyotaka Akasaka of Japan, currently Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), becomes Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, succeeding Shashi Tharoor of India. He has been closely involved throughout his career with the work of multilateral organizations.
Muhammad Shaaban of Egypt, currently National Coordinator for Reform Initiatives in the Middle East, was named Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, succeeding Jian Chen of China. ]
The Chef de Cabinet explained to journalists at the UN Noon Briefing that “Among those who Mr. Ban retained from the former administration of Secretary-General Kofi Annan were Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel, Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security David Veness and Under-Secretary-General at the UN Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) Inga-Britt Ahlenius.
Asked whether some of the officials whose resignations were accepted may stay on in other posts, the Chef de Cabinet said that the Secretary-General would keep that matter under advisement, since he may want to use the experience of some senior officials.
Asked about any concern that the United Nations was losing some of its best people, the Chef de Cabinet said that there was also a need to build new talent and experience.
Asked about criticism regarding the length of time it took to make the appointments, Nambiar said that the Secretary-General had been conscious of the need to move quickly. He acknowledged that there had been a slippage in the timing of the appointments, for a variety of reasons.”
Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Shashi Tharoor watch, UN Administration, UN Secretary-General
So it is :
Adios Ocampo @ DESA and the US wins as far as Political affairs dept is concerned.
Adios to a number of people! The US guy, Pascoe, speaks Mandarin Chinese. Apparently he and the Chinese Ambassador in Geneva, Sha Zukang (now DESA) have had a few anxious days or weeks, waiting for these announcements. Now they’ll find out how bad the UN administration really is …
Those staying from Kofi Annan Exec Mgmt are:
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel,
Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security David Veness and Under-Secretary-General at the UN Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) Inga-Britt Ahlenius.
Sayonara to Jian Chen of China and Shashi Tharoor
Well Sha Zukang was already Ambassador @ UNOG and I believe that he must know the M.O. Pascoe will take orders from Foggy Bottom and the level of frustration will rise !!!
Yes — but I can’t understand why Jean-Marie Guehenno is staying on, with all the cricicism of UN Peacekeepers (yet his ASG Hedi Annabi is going — and still no announcement of Jane Holl Lute, the other ASG in Peacekeeping, who has been trotted out on every occasion to counter the recurring charges of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers).
I saw one journalist refer to Guehenno as being very good, or very effective, or something — but unfortunately journalists cannot be trusted in their evaluation from the outside of UN personnel, and they say n’importe quoi….
Nobody knows from outside quite how bad the UN administration is — and of course there is also the perennial human reaction that while bad things may have happened to others (probably because they were unreasonable or faulty in some other way), surely it won’t happen to ME…
No, I still think Sha Zukang and Pascoe are in for big surprises and a lot of come-downs — but they can exchange their experiences in Mandarin Chinese conversations…
It’s all about politics my friend. If Guehenno goes, Ban has to give a major position to France in either DPKO or another “top” dept thus resulting in a “chaise musicale” whereby the P5 reps have to be leading the portfolios. This is the easiest way out for now since he decided to “delink” the appointments of new officials and the agreement on structural changes to appease the GA members. So far the top officials are the P5 reps, Japan ( representing Asia), An African ( D-UNSG), an Egyptian ( representing the Arab countries) , an Indian (CdC) and a South American (Management).
) plus to cater to some other countries like Pakistan, the Scandinavian etc (heck he has been elected since mid-October and he is still late in his appointments of the top officials).
Now he has to consider all the I.O.Us from the race to the election ( the non-permanent members of the Security Council who voted for him
As far as UN peacekeepers, one just has to read what happened in Haiti to distrust that that department, let alone what has been happening in Africa.
People from the outside know exactly what goes on at/in/ because of the UN ( either through insiders or witnesses or victims) but we are just observers and HOPE that reform does happen - otherwise it is just a white big elephant
and a nice CLUB for some appointees or national representatives who are there just to serve their terms and increase their network of friends for their next “move”