UNDP WATCH: Jan eliasson

Showing posts with label Jan eliasson. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

After leaked memo on Angela Kane's involvement into potential scandal: - Ban Ki-moon requests that investigation go forward

Yesterday, after InnercityPress leaked an internal memo from OIOS, the office of Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) called for the investigation to go on!

Click here for the document @ InnercityPress: http://www.innercitypress.com/comvoios1icp.pdf

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Despite UNDP's failure with LOTFA in Afghanistan: the UN's DSG Jan Eliasson wants UNDP to do more police related work ! ( i.e.: Like the major corruption in Afghanistan)

Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

8 November 2012 – Now is the time to come together and promote the work of the United Nations for the rule of law, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said today, noting the different comparative advantages within the world body that complement one another and can be used to achieve this goal.

“If we work together, we can be an effective force in strengthening the rule of law. If we forge a common approach, we can build solid foundations for peace and security in post-conflict States,” he said in a presentation, delivered at UN Headquarters in New York, to the UN System Chief Executives Board, which brings together the heads of UN organizations with the aim of enhancing cooperation and coordination amongst them.

Mr. Eliasson said that to strengthen the work of the UN, it is necessary to “break down the walls” between its activities in the three pillars of peace, development and human rights, and adopt a holistic and integrated approach. “The rule of law can help us solve concrete problems, cutting across all three pillars of our work,” he noted.

Read this in full @: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43442&Cr=&Cr1=#.UJ_sH4XK49A

Friday, August 24, 2012

UN News: Conflict management, development among key focus areas for deputy UN chief

Conflict management, development among key focus areas for deputy UN chief

UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson. UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz

23 August 2012 –

Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson says key development issues such as tackling food security and fighting poverty, as well as the crisis in Syria, will feature high on his agenda at the United Nations. “As Deputy Secretary-General I will of course focus on what the SG [Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon] wants me to work with. But I will probably focus most on two areas: development – and we face some very serious challenges in this area – and secondly, political issues,” Mr. Eliasson said in an interview with the UN News Centre.
“On development, it’s such a wide range of areas, but the most urgent […] issue is the food security crisis,” he added. “We are expecting price increases of food all over the world in the next 4-5 months.”
The veteran Swedish diplomat, who took up his post in July, is no stranger to the Organization, having served in a number of UN positions, including Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, President of the General Assembly and Special Envoy for Darfur.
“The United Nations has always been very close to my heart,” said Mr. Eliasson. “I believe in the values and principles of the United Nations. We are often criticized but I think we are a reflection of the world as it is and not as we want it to be – but we have to bridge that gap, make sure the world becomes more of what we want it to be.”
Among the areas where there is still much work to be done, the Deputy Secretary-General cited the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – specific targets on poverty alleviation, education, gender equality, child and maternal health, environmental stability, HIV/AIDS reduction, and a ‘Global Partnership for Development’ that world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.
Last month Mr. Ban announced the members of a high-level panel he set up to present recommendations on a global post-2015 agenda with shared responsibilities for all countries and with the fight against poverty and sustainable development at its core.
There were many crises to deal with on the political front, Mr. Eliasson noted. “The most dramatic one, the most internationally recognized one is, of course, Syria, where we are dealing with very serious matters, providing hopefully a peaceful alternative to the horrible fighting that goes on now, and the suffering that goes on now, with huge humanitarian consequences.”
Syria has been wracked by violence, with an estimated 17,000 people, mostly civilians, killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 17 months ago. Over the past month, there have been reports of an escalation in violence in many towns and villages, as well as the country’s two biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.
Other issues of concern, he said, include the tensions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel, along with the conflict in northern Mali.

News Tracker: past stories on this issue

Ban appoints veteran Swedish diplomat as new UN Deputy Secretary-General

Monday, March 5, 2012

Ban Ki-moon Musical Chairs: Old Managers - New Positions - same duty station NEW YORK !!!

At UN As Ban Ki-moon Taps Eliasson, G77 Complaints, Maged Auditions, Africa Excluded, Khare to DFS?

By Matthew Russell Lee

Click here to view this story on InnerCityPress.Com

UNITED NATIONS, March 2 -- When UN Secretary GeneralBan Ki-moon dropped Asha-Rose Migiro as his deputy in January and Inner City Press reported it, Ban's office refused to confirm it, leaving that to the UN in Migiro's native Tanzania.

After Ban on March 2 named as Migiro's replacement Jan Eliasson of Sweden, Inner City Press was pitched by Nordic diplomats to "please write something positive about Eliasson." Okay -- in his time as President of the General Assembly, he mediated a few conflicts such as on disability rights, and was more active than some of his successors.

But later on March 2, a number of developing work diplomats approached Inner City Press with outrage at the appointment. Not only on what Inner City Press immediately reported -- that Ban was dropping an African for a Nordic, after having defied the African Group and General Assembly by refusing to name a full time Special Adviser on Africa -- but about what Eliasson did while PGA.

They say Eliasson was central to an attempt to move UN reform out of the Fifth (Budget) committee, where developing countries have relatively more strength, to the plenary where better staffed developed world Permanent Representatives have the edge.

"Eliasson can call meetings, sure," a developing world diplomat told Inner City Press, "but who will be invited?"

With Argentina's Susana Malcorra -- more on her anon -- moving to Chief of Staff to replace Vijay Nambiar of India, and "Ban's brain" Kim Won-soo being parked in the Change Management position previously held by India's Atul Khare, Inner City Press now predicts based on sourcing that Khare will be moved to Malcorra's spot atop the Department of Field Support. Only at Ban's UN: musical chairs.

Meanwhile to belatedly fill the Special Adviser on Africa post Ban is considering, or auditioning, Mubarak era Egyptian Permanent Representative Maged Abdelaziz, who delivered a defense of Ban in the General Assembly Friday afternoon. Things go lower every day in Ban's UN, where Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky won't even allow questions on these topics. Watch this site.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

IPS NEWS: U.N. Chief Exercises Selective Transparency in Key Posts

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS ON IPS NEWS

By Thalif Deen

Sussana Malcorra of Argentina has been appointed as the secretary-general's new chief of staff.

Credit:UN Photo/Mark Garten

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 2, 2012 (IPS) - As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Friday the appointments of two of his most senior officials, he has also broken new ground in his global search for a new team: an advertisement in a British weekly calling for applicants for vacant high-ranking jobs in the Secretariat.

But the ad in the current issue of the Economist is confined to only four senior posts in the Secretariat: the under-secretaries general (USG) for public information; management; economic and social affairs; and general assembly and conference management.

"Advertising available posts in the Economist is not new," Samir Sanbar, a former assistant secretary-general and head of the department of public information, told IPS. "But advertising USG posts is new."

"A decision to advertise USG posts seems to be a move in the right direction, as long as the final decision remains really with the secretary-general, who is the only accountable official selected by the Security Council and elected by the General Assembly," said Sanbar, who has served under five different secretaries-general.

Although the advertisement gives the impression that Ban is being transparent in his appointments, he has named several new officials without recourse to advertising, including the two he announced Friday: Jan Eliasson of Sweden, a former president of the General Assembly, as the new deputy secretary-general, and Sussana Malcorra of Argentina, the former USG for Field Support, as the new chief of staff.

At a press briefing Friday, Ban said his four USG appointments (spelled out in the ad) will be "open and public nominations".

However, a former senior U.N. official who served under Kofi Annan was sceptical of the ad, even though he said it was the right move.

Speaking off the record, he told IPS, "Why the selectiveness (in advertising only four of the posts)? Why not others, like (the USG) for the Office of Disarmament Affairs (ODA) and even the USG for Political Affairs?"

He questioned why the posts of deputy secretary general and chief of staff were also not advertised.

"This is - as far as I know - the first time USG posts have been advertised and it is to be welcomed as a transition towards transparency and open competition for the second tier jobs in the United Nations," he said.

"It will hopefully replace the back-room horse-dealing among great powers and regional groups for key slots where interest groups and not genuine talent was the determining factor," he noted.

The downside is the delay in getting this process under way and the gap between the departure of the old order and the arrival of the new, with negative consequences in the U.N. administration, he added.

The secretary-general has so far announced several new appointments - both USGs and assistant secretaries general (ASGs) - without recourse to any advertising.

But he did write to the 193 member states asking for nominations for some of the vacant posts prompted by his decision to ask all senior officials to resign if they have completed five years of service.

Ban, who began his second five-year term in January, has said he wants a new team of officials to work with.

The three criteria for appointments are merit; gender, with preference being given to women provided they have the right qualifications; and geographical balance.

The USG posts that will fall vacant (and not advertised) include the Office for Disarmament Affairs, the special representative for children and armed conflict, head of political affairs, and the special adviser for prevention of genocide.

Sanbar told IPS that it was generally felt that the secretary-general should have the discretion - and the wisdom - to select his team from as wide a geographical and political representation as feasible.

"I recall when serving on the U.N.'s Appointment and Promotion Board in the late 1980s representing the staff we asked the then- Personnel Director Kofi Annan (later secretary-general) to advertise more widely externally available posts and to invite more participation from all regional/cultural backgrounds.

"And when I chaired the Board (which Annan later abolished) from 1993-1997, we particularly focused on (advertising in) the Economist, the Financial Times and using U.N. Information Offices for relevant regional media, hoping to attract the attention of more young intellectuals worldwide," he added.

Historically, successive secretaries-general have been under pressure either from major donors or the big five powers - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - for some of the plum posts in the Secretariat.

And virtually all secretaries-general have caved in to outside pressure.

Asked if the advertisement was a cover for appointments already decided, Sanbar said, "Even if it is maybe in certain cases a cover for some appointments already decided, the momentum generated by such an open process could help break down long- imposed barriers."

Like any new precedent, he said, it could be either a liberating card to strengthen the hand of the secretary-general or a wild Joker card that could be used by others to tie his hands.

"It depends on who would be the dealer - and whether it turns out to be bridge or baccarat," said Sanbar.

Meanwhile, Ban also announced last week several new ASGs: Kate Gilmore of Australia, as one of the two deputy executive directors of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA); Sima Sami Bahous of Jordan as assistant administrator and director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States at the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP); Jens Wandel of Denmark as UNDP assistant administrator and director of the bureau of management; and Ayse Cihan Sultanogu of Turkey as UNDP assistant administrator and director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS ON IPS NEWS