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 News from Around the Americas | January 2007 
Mexican and Briton Get Top Jobs at the UN
 Reuters
| | Alicia Barcena Ibarra |
United Nations - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Mexican Alicia Barcena Ibarra, an environmentalist, to the top administration post at the world body, which is often criticised for inefficiency.
The announcement of Barcena's appointment this week, and that of senior British diplomat John Holmes to oversee humanitarian affairs, prompted media questions about the level of specialist experience both brought to the jobs.
Ban, a South Korean who succeeded Kofi Annan on January 1, has been trying to balance jobs between permanent Security Council members, powerful states who were instrumental in his election, and key developing nations.
UN spokeswoman Michele Montas announced the appointments at a news conference where she was immediately questioned about the experience of both officials in their respective fields. She said they were more than qualified.
Barcena replaces American Christopher Burnham as the undersecretary-general for administration and management, a post that includes the budget, financial oversight, electronic data bases and ethical standards, all areas which are central to international efforts to reform the UN bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, Holmes, Britain's ambassador in France since 2001, is known among his colleagues as an extremely skilled diplomat, whom British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett called "one of our most outstanding public servants." |
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