DECEMBER
BRAZIL APPOINTS SILVA AS ENVIRONMENT
CHIEF
Senator Marina Silva has been selected to
head Brazil's Ministry of Environment in the Workers Party government of
President-elect Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. Born in the Brazilian Amazon,
Silva grew up tapping rubber, hunting and fishing to help support her
family. After earning a university degree, Silva founded an independent
trade union movement with rubber tapper leader Chico Mendes. In 1996,
Senator Silva won the Goldman Environmental Prize for Latin America for
environmental protection of sustainable extractive reserves, social
justice and sustainable development in the Amazon region. For more
information visit:
http://www.ens-news.com/ens/dec2002/2002-12-11-01.asp
NOVEMBER
JAN PRONK TO CHAIR IIED
The Board of Trustees of the
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) announced
that, effective 18 November 2002, Jan Pronk will serve as its Chair.
Pronk was recently UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy
for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. Prior to that
position, he held the positions of Minister of Environment (1998-2002)
and Minister of Development Cooperation (1973-77; 1989-1998) for the
Government of The Netherlands. He succeeds Derek Osborn, who has been Chair
since 1999 and remains on the IIED Board as Vice-Chair.
Pronk noted that he is “delighted to
head the Board of IIED, which has a global reputation for integrity and
excellence as a pioneering international policy research institute in
the field of sustainable development …This Institute has thrived for
more than 30 years in cutting-edge policy and action research and played
a leading role at the Johannesburg Earth Summit. Its vision for the
future will be of critical importance to the United Nations, governments
and civil society around the world.” For more information visit:
http://www.iied.org/aboutiied/news.html
OCTOBER
UNCTAD APPOINTS
PURI
TO HEAD TRADE DIVISION
Lakshmi Puri,
India, has been appointed the new Director of
UNCTAD's
Division for
Trade in Goods and Services and Commodities (DITC). The former Indian
Ambassador to Hungary
and Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the UN in Geneva,
Puri joins UNCTAD after 28 years with the Indian Foreign Service,
where she
worked in
policymaking, administration and
bilateral and
multilateral economic diplomacy, with a focus on trade, economic
cooperation and development.
For more
information visit:
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Webflyer.asp?docID=2887&intItemID=1635&lang=1
WORLD BANK APPOINTS NEW DIRECTOR-GENERAL FOR OPERATIONS
EVALUATION
Gregory K. Ingram of the United States has been appointed
the new Director-General of the World Bank’s Operations Evaluation. The
Director-General of this department is directly responsible to the
Executive Directors of the Bank for evaluating the Bank’s programmes and
activities and appraising the Bank’s operations self-evaluation and
development risk management systems. Ingram replaces Robert Picciotto,
who has announced his retirement. For the past two years, Ingram has
served as the World Bank’s Director of the Operations Evaluation
Department. Prior to joining the World Bank in 1994, Ingram was an
Associate Professor at Harvard University, where he also received his
Ph.D. in Economics. For more information visit:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/
NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20071253~menuPK:34463~pagePK
:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html
GWP
APPOINTS GABBRIELLI AS NEW EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
Emilio Gabbrielli has been
appointed as the Global Water
Partnership’s new
Executive Secretary. Gabbrielli,
who holds both Italian and Australian citizenships, will begin work
at GWP
on 1 January 2003,
replacing Khalid Mohtadullah who
retires this year after serving the GWP since March 1999. Gabbrielli is
currently the Managing Director of Thames Water Do Brazil. For more
information visit:
http://www.gwpforum.org/servlet/PSP
RAMSAR APPOINTS LEI AS ASIA REGIONAL
COORDINATOR
The Ramsar Bureau has appointed Lei
Guangchun of China as the new Regional Coordinator for
Asia. Lei replaces Najam Khurshid,
who returns to Pakistan following two and a half years of service with
the Bureau. Lei has served as Chief of the Division of Nature Reserve
Management in the Forest Department of Hunan Province. He was also a
Professor in the Department of Ecology and Environmental Biology in
Peking University and Director of the
Freshwater and Marine Programme with WWF’s China Programme. For more
information visit:
http://www.ramsar.org/w.n.html
GEF CHIEF TO STEP DOWN IN 2003
After three terms as Global Environment
Facility (GEF) Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Egyptian born
Mohamed T. El-Ashry has announced that he will step down from his
leadership role in July 2003. El-Ashry has been the GEF Chairman since
1991, and was appointed the first CEO and Chairman of the GEF in 1994.
Under his leadership, GEF grew from a pilot programme with less than 30
members to the largest single source of funding for the global
environment with 173 member countries. This past August, donor nations
voted to replenish GEF’s trust fund by nearly US$3 billion. “The
environment community will always remain indebted to Mohamed El-Ashry
for his unique contribution in advancing the objectives of the GEF,”
said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. “Through his leadership, the
partnership between the World Bank and the United Nations for the
benefit of the global environment has become a reality.” For more
information visit:
http://gefweb.org/Outreach/Media/Press_Releases/Revised%20El-
Ashry%20news%20release%20announcement.doc
ANNAN APPOINTS EVELINE HERFKENS AS MDG
EXECUTIVE COORDINATOR
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has
appointed former Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation, Eveline
Herfkens, as Executive Coordinator to assist in promoting the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). Herfkens, who has served as Permanent
Representative of the Netherlands at the UN and as Executive Director of
the World Bank in Washington D.C., will be working with Annan to build
coalitions for raising the MDGs to the top of the agenda worldwide and
creating a global movement behind them. Herfkens begins her work on 1
November 2002. For more information visit:
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/sg2079e.htm
INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE LAW OF THE
SEA ELECTS PRESIDENT AND VICE- PRESIDENT
Dolliver Nelson (Grenada) was elected on
1 October 2002 as President of the International Tribunal for the Law of
the Sea, while Budislav Vukas
(Croatia) was elected Vice-President. Both will serve
for the period 2002-2005. Nelson, who replaces
P. Chandrasekhara
Rao, has been a member of
the Tribunal since 1996 and served as the Vice-President of the Tribunal
from 1999-2002. Vukas has been a Member of the Tribunal since 1996. For
more information visit:
http://www.itlos.org/news/press_release/2002/press_release_68_en.doc
and
http://www.itlos.org/news/press_release/2002/press_release_69_en.doc
SEPTEMBER
SUPACHAI ASSUMES WTO DIRECTOR-GENERAL ROLE
Supachai
Panitchpakdi is the new Director-General of the World Trade
Organization, having taken up his appointment on 1 September 2002.
Supachai will serve the WTO for three years. For more information visit:
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/dg_e/dg_e.htm
AUGUST
PATOSAARI APPOINTED NEW COORDINATOR AND
HEAD OF THE UNFF SECRETARIAT
Pekka Patosaari (Finland) was appointed
to the position of Coordinator and Head of the Secretariat of the UN
Forum on Forests (UNFF), within the UN Department of Social and Economic
Affairs. Patosaari has spent most of his career with the Finnish
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Helsinki, most recently as
Director of State Forestry and Forestry Research and as Deputy to the
Director General. He has also worked for the Finnish Ministry for
Foreign Affairs in London with a portfolio of forestry and environment
issues, and serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Center
for International Forestry Research. His achievements in international
forest policy include five years as Chief Coordinator of the
Pan-European Process. Patosaari
has also been involved in
Finland’s international cooperation programmes, particularly in China.
For more information visit:
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/unffdocs/27082002_
UN_Press_Release_Pekka%20Patosaari%20UNFF
JULY
TIBAIJUKA APPOINTED
UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL
Executive Director of the United Nations Human
Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), Anna Tibaijuka, has been appointed
to the level of Under-Secretary-General. For more information visit:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=4253&Cr=Habitat&Cr1=
KAVAN ELECTED NEXT GA PRESIDENT
Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister
Jan Kavan was elected be the president of the General Assembly's 57th
session, which opens 10 September 2002. Kavan will succeed current
President Han Seung-soo of South Korea. For more information visit:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/ga10033.doc.htm
DENMARK ASSUMES EU PRESIDENCY
Denmark took over the Presidency
of the European Union from Spain on 1 July 2002. For more information
visit:
http://www.um.dk/english/presidency/
JUNE
GONZALEZ APPOINTED AS EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF OZONE
SECRETARIAT
Marco Antonio Gonzalez from Costa Rica starts work as the
Executive Secretary of the Ozone Secretariat in June 2002. For more
information visit:
http://www.unep.org/ozone/new-exec-sec.shtml
PRESTRUD APPOINTED AS DIRECTOR AT
CICERO
Pal Prestrud
will function as Director of the
Center for
International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO) in Oslo,
Norway starting 3 June. For more
information visit:
http://www.cicero.uio.no/index_e.asp
APRIL
CHOWDHURY APPOINTED AS HIGH
REPRESENTATIVE FOR LDCS
Anwarul Chowdhury
has been appointed as high
representative for least developed countries, landlocked developing
countries and small island developing states. Chowdhury was Bangladesh's
former UN ambassador and the UN coordinator for the LDCs. Chowdhury has
also served as president of the Security Council and president of the
UNICEF
Executive Board. For more information visit:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/sga792.doc.htm
OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE
APPOINTS NEW CHAIR
Baroness
Margaret Jay has been appointed as the new Chair of the Overseas
Development Institute. A former Leader of the House of Lords and
Minister for Women , Margaret Jay will assume office on 1 April 2002,
succeeding Earl Cairns, who has been Chairman since 1995. For more
information visit:
http://www.odi.org.uk/newsreleases/jay_press.html
MARCH
WORLD
FOOD PROGRAMME APPOINTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
James Morris
has been appointed as Director of the World Food Programme. Morris has
formerly served as chair and chief executive officer of
Indianapolis Water Company Resources
Corporation and as president of the Lilly Endowment, a charitable
foundation in the United States.
Morris succeeds Catherine Bertini, whose
second five-year term will end in March 2002. For more information
visit:
http://www.wfp.org/newsroom/in_brief/Morris_appointment14_02.html
ENERGY
AND ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME AT CHATHAM HOUSE CHANGES NAME
As of 1
February 2002, the Royal Institute of International Affairs� (Chatham
House) Energy and Environment Programme changed its name to the
Sustainable Development Programme. For more information visit:
http://www.riia.org/Research/eep/eep.html
FEBRUARY
NEW UNFCCC EXECUTIVE SECRETARY APPOINTED
Joke Waller-Hunter of the Netherlands has
been appointed as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Waller-Hunter replaces
outgoing Executive Secretary Michael Zammit Cutajar (Malta), who retired
at the end of January. Waller-Hunter was the Director of the Division
for Sustainable Development within the Department of Economic and Social
Affairs of the UN Secretariat before taking up her present post as the
Environment Director at OECD in Paris. For more information visit:
http://www.unfccc.int/wnew/index.html
JANUARY
2002 ECOSOC PRESIDENT ELECTED
Ambassador Ivan �imonovic, Permanent
Representative of Croatia, has been elected President of the 2002
session of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). He served as
Vice-President of ECOSOC from January 2001 until his recent election as
President. For more information visit:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/ecosoc5995.doc.htm
If you
would like to submit details of
recent appointments or departures,
send a message to
Diego Noguera, IISD
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Appointments, Departures