Helen Clark To Step Down As UNDP Chief In April

“Helen Clark, the highest ranking woman at the United Nations, is stepping down as director of the UN Development Programme in April”, as reported on Channel News Asia.

“It has been an honour and privilege for me to lead UNDP for eight years,” Clark wrote in the email addressed to “dear colleagues.”

“The former prime minister of New Zealand told UNDP staff that she had notified UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres of her intention to leave the top post on Apr 19, at the end of her second four-year term.” Her departure opens up a race to lead the UN’s largest agency, as reported in the article.

“In her time as head of the UNDP, Clark oversaw a major restructure which ruffled feathers internally but pleased some of the donor countries to the UNDP, such as the United States, which had criticised the UN for ineffective use of money,” reports the NZ Herald.

Former British foreign secretary David Milliband and French ecology minister Segolene Royal have been tipped as possible successors.

Article Source: Channel News Asia, January 26, 2017

Image Source: Wikipedia