UN Agencies

• July 8, 2021

UN Women is looking for a new executive director. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, a former vice president of South Africa, is stepping down after eight years at the helm. The appointment comes as the Generation Equality Forum in Paris just ended, with historically high financial pledges by some governments. But it comes at a moment of peril …

Gender Violence, Secretary-General, UN Agencies, WORLDVIEWS

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Nomination to Lead the UN’s Trade Agency Provokes a Power Play

Maurizio Guerrero

• May 27, 2021

The proposed selection of Rebeca Grynspan, a Costa Rican economist and former vice president of her country, to head the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was made without consulting the core of the agency — the Group of 77 and China, comprised of 134 countries from the Global South. The nomination for …

Development, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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THIS WEEK @UN

The US Envoy on Racism; ‘Apartheid’ in the Mideast; UK’s Cuts to UN Agencies

Ivana Ramirez

• April 30, 2021

Veronique Vandegans, the United Nations chief of the French Interpretation Section, working at home in Brooklyn, N.Y., with company. The photo is part of a story for the UN Department of Global Communications on remote interpretation. MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO The United States ambassador goes honest on racism; an ex-Ecuadorean head of state aims to be …

Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Latin America, Secretary-General, This Week @UN, UN Agencies, UN Special Envoys, US-UN Relations

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The Boss of the UN’s Environment Agency Has Been Away for a Year From Its Nairobi HQ. Does It Matter?

Maurizio Guerrero

• March 30, 2021

Inger Andersen, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, has been working from Copenhagen since March 2020 — away from the agency’s headquarters in Nairobi for a year. The Gigiri Complex, which houses the UN offices in Kenya’s capital, has been officially closed since April 1, 2020, except for essential staff, to limit …

Africa, UN Agencies

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The UN’s Humanitarian Aid Agency, Ready for a New Boss and Possibly a New Management Style

Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• March 22, 2021

The United Nations’ top agency for humanitarian aid is poised for a new boss to arrive, one who could instill a management style far removed from what some of its staffers call a “neocolonial mind-set” under the outgoing head, Mark Lowcock, a Briton. As Secretary-General António Guterres decides on who will next lead the …

Humanitarian Aid, Secretary-General, UN Agencies

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COVID-19

Globetrotters Alert: You May Soon Need a Vaccine Passport

Ivana Ramirez

• February 15, 2021

Even with vaccines steadily rolling out in many countries, the end of the Covid-19 pandemic is hardly on the horizon. As countries continue to weave in and out of shutdowns, curfews, virus variants and new deadly waves, the travel and tourism industries are being devastated. In the first 10 months of global shutdowns, tourism worldwide fell more …

Covid-19, Health and Population, UN Agencies

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THIS WEEK @UN

US Nominee Grilled on China; Guterres’s Top Goals for 2021; UN Tech Envoy Put on Leave

Ivana Ramirez

• January 29, 2021

Biden’s nominee for UN envoy faces the Senate; Guterres’s main focus in 2021; the UN’s brand-new tech envoy accused of harassment. You are reading This Week @UN, a summary of the most pressing issues facing the international organization. The information is gathered from the UN spokesperson’s press briefings, original PassBlue reporting and other sources. …

Gender Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

UN Agencies Are Not Exactly Zooming Toward Open Meetings

Toby McIntosh

• January 25, 2021

WASHINGTON — With United Nations entities meeting mostly virtually in the Covid-19 pandemic, it is a good time for more of them to hold open sessions. But no transparency trend has materialized in the nearly yearlong pandemic so far. Having surveyed 27 core UN organizations to learn whether they conduct open meetings and issue …

UN Agencies, WORLDVIEWS

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Hey, Biden-Harris Team, What About the UN?

Stéphanie Fillion

• November 17, 2020

President-elect Joe Biden’s first message to fellow world leaders was clear: America is back. But there’s a glaring omission in his foreign policy plan: the United Nations. After four years of the Trump administration’s defunding and leaving UN organizations and agreements, the United States’ relationship with the UN is ripe for revival. But what, …

UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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As the Nobel Peace Prize Is Awarded to the World Food Program, Famines Loom

Clair MacDougall

• October 10, 2020

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — David Beasley, the head of the World Food Program, this year’s just-announced Nobel Peace Prize winner, has warned that the number of people facing starvation could double next year, to 270 million, if the agency is unable to raise enough money to cope with the crisis. “2021 is going to be …

Humanitarian Aid, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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‘Cowboys’ May Be Running the World Food Program, but Donations Keep Coming

Dulcie Leimbach

• October 27, 2019

The World Food Program may be receiving millions of more donations from the Trump administration than under past presidencies, but its management is skidding around amid complaints of sexual harassment, retaliation, abuse of authority and, most startling, rape, according to a new external survey. Under the leadership of David Beasley, a former South Carolina …

UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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The UN Palestinian Refugee Agency Is in Hot Water, Again

Thalif Deen

• August 5, 2019

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which has been undermined by a sharp cut in United States contributions, has been embroiled in a scandal that threatens to jeopardize its very future. A report from the agency’s Ethics Office has found “credible and corroborated” evidence that the senior management of Unrwa engaged in “sexual …

Middle East, Secretary-General, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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China, Gaining Power in the UN, Could Win FAO Leadership

Barbara Crossette

• June 18, 2019

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has existed at the periphery of UN agencies and been a focus of critics almost since its founding in 1945, as the vehicle for ending hunger and achieving food security. Based in Rome, the FAO has 194 member nations and many projects designed to raise the standards …

UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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Pressures Mount for Deeper Investigations Into the UN Trade Group

Barbara Crossette

• May 12, 2019

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, riven internally by disputes over its mission and future direction, may be in trouble. Faced with questions about its basic competence from board members and outside investigators, accusations have been gathering about unsatisfactory statistical work and laxity in meeting UN standards and regulations for spending reports …

UN Agencies

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With Scandals Rife Across the UN, Are Managers at Fault?

Barbara Crossette

• April 24, 2019

A sea of new or lingering allegations of harassment and corruption in numerous agencies and programs in the United Nations system appears to be washing over a sprawling organization battered by scandal. Poor or careless management and oversight, from top to bottom, is partly to blame, but so is persistent, overt politicization of high-level …