UNDP WATCH: New Zealand’s Clark to Run UN Development Agency, Official Says

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

New Zealand’s Clark to Run UN Development Agency, Official Says

By Bill Varner

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark will be named today as the next administrator of the United Nations Development Program by Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon, according to a UN official.

Clark, who lost the 2008 general election after nine years as prime minister, will be approved by the agency’s board and then by the UN General Assembly, according to the official, who spoke on condition of not being identified before Ban makes the announcement.

New Zealand’s National Party defeated Clark’s Labour Party in a Nov. 8 election, with former Merrill Lynch & Co. trader John Key ending her tenure as prime minister after the economy fell into recession. Clark was seeking to become the first Labour Party leader to win four elections after winning power in 1999. She has led the party since 1993.

The UNDP’s annual budget of more than $1 billion is based on voluntary contributions. It has projects in 165 nations.

The agency’s administrator is one of the UN’s highest ranked officials after the secretary-general and deputy secretary-general. Clark’s priority will be achieving the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, which include halving world poverty and hunger by 2015.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner at the United Nations atwvarner@bloomberg.net

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Thank God, no more Scandinavian, Western European countries who "bribed" their way in..........
No Copenhagen, no Barcelona, no more home-based jobs for senior management @ la Hollandaise , I do hope so .....; Wednesday, March 25, 2009

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Andrew Mitchell - says Helen Clark is up to no good!

1. UNDP’s partnership with the World Bank needs to be more effective, particularly in fragile and crisis-affected countries. 2. UNDP’s near universal mandate means its technical resources are spread very thinly. The Board does not provide strategic direction. HR management is weak. It has a weak results chain. 3. There is limited evidence of active senior management consideration of cost control. Country evidence points to mixed progress on demonstrating cost-efficiency. 4. The Executive Board is politicised and there is a lack of consensus on the key areas for reform. It is not clear that current plans for change will deliver the required depth and breadth of reform. 5. Evidence gathered at country level was highly critical of UNDP’s ability to deliver results. Its delivery can be undermined by staffing issues and bureaucratic processes. 6. Its performance in fragile states is mixed. It has reasonable training and a range of guidance and analytical tools but struggles to fill posts. 7. There is no evidence that the Climate Strategy was directly guiding resource allocation decisions

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"I take the accusations made in the media concerning corruption and breach of fiduciary duty at the Global Fund very seriously and I am sure that the Fund will clarify the matter without delay. Germany is one of the biggest donors to the Global Fund. I have therefore seen to it that a special review will be held. I have frozen all further disbursements to the Fund until matters have been fully clarified, and I will ask a representative of the Fund to come to the BMZ to discuss the matter."

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