NOVEMBER
HORWITZ JOINS
OZONE SECRETARIAT
Paul Horwitz will be joining the
Montreal Protocol secretariat as its new Deputy Executive Secretary. Horwitz,
who was a US negotiator, will replace outgoing Deputy Michael Graber, who is retiring in
at the end of 2004. The new appointment was officially announced during
the Sixteenth Meeting of Parties to the Montreal Protocol in late
November, when delegates thanked Graber for his many years’ service, and
welcomed ozone veteran Horwitz to his new position.
IISDRS SENDS CONDOLENCES UPON PASSING
AWAY OF HUTTON ARCHER
IISD Reporting Services sends its
condolences to the Archer family and the GEF upon the death of Hutton
Archer. A Guyanese communications specialist, Archer was Senior External
Relations Coordinator at the GEF. He has also Chief Information Officer
with the International Civil Aviation Organization, and worked in
communications for UN-HABITAT, CARICOM and Guyana’s Ministry of
Information. Archer is remembered for his commitment to communications
in the field of environment and sustainable development.
URUGUAYAN JOINS RACE FOR TOP TRADE JOB
Ambassador Carlos Pérez del Castillo has
officially joined the race to succeed Supachai Panitchpakdi as
Director-General of the World Trade Organization. He joins several
others in seeking the post. A successor is to be named by May 2005.
More information.
DESA APPOINTS SUNDARAM TO SENIOR POST
Jomo Kwame Sundaram has been appointed
Assistant Secretary-General on Economic Development, a new post created
this year as part of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s reform to support
policy coherence and management in the Department. Sundaram, a Malaysian
national, will also serve as the senior adviser to Jose Antonio Ocampo,
Under-Secretary-General for Economic Affairs.
More.
NEW TEAM APPOINTED TO ORGANIZE SECOND
PHASE OF WSIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NAMED
Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and Secretary-General of
the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the agency charged with
organizing the Summit, has announced the appointment of a team to
organize the second phase of the WSIS to be held in Tunis from 16 -18
November 2005. Charles Geiger has been appointed Executive Director of
the WSIS Executive Secretariat. Other members of the team include three
senior ITU officials: Art Levin, Chief of the ITU Coordination, External
Relations and Communication Units; Tim Kelly, Chief of ITU Strategy and
Policy Unit; and Fernando Lagraña, Executive Manager of ITU TELECOM. The
organizing team will work with Member States and Information Society
partners to help build on the momentum gained during the first phase in
Geneva to create the framework for an equitable Information Society.
More.
SEPTEMBER
NEW DIRECTOR BEGINS WORK AT GEF OFFICE
OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION
Robert D. van den Berg took up his
position at the Global Environment Facility as the Director of
Monitoring and Evaluation in Washington, D.C on 7 September 2004. Van
den Berg comes to the GEF from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
where he worked for 24 years in various positions within development
cooperation and other policy domains.
More.
FORMER PRESIDENT OF COSTA RICA TO
ASSUME WSSCC CHAIR
José Maria Figueres, a former President
of Costa Rica, will assume the Chairmanship of the Water Supply and
Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC). Figueres, who also serves as
CEO of the World Economic Forum, will succeed Jan Pronk, who was
recently appointed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special
Representative in the Sudan. The official handover of the Chairmanship
from Sir Richard Jolly to Figueres will occur during the Global WASH
Forum, scheduled for 29 November to 3 December in Dakar, Senegal.
More.
RICUPERO
RETIRES FROM UNCTAD
Rubens Ricupero, the
Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD), has left the organization after nine years in the top job. He
was the fifth person to lead UNCTAD in its 40-year history. Ricupero
marked his departure with a speech in which he reflected on both
UNCTAD’s past and possible future, urging that the “central concern of
UNCTAD must be with the ethical and human dimensions of development.”
While a permanent replacement has yet to be named, Carlos Fortín of
Chile has been appointed acting Secretary-General. Read
Ricupero’s final address as Secretary-General, and
Ricupero’s biographical details.
NEW COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER JOINS MEDWET
Sofia Syprou has joined the
MedWet Coordination Unit as the new Communications Officer based in the
Ramsar Convention’s office in Athens, Greece. Syprou has worked broadly
across the fields of environment, economics and sustainability, focusing
both on policy analysis and communications. The MedWet Initiative is a
long-term, collaborative effort towards the conservation and wise-use of
wetlands in the Mediterranean, governed by the rules and procedures of
the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. For more information visit:
http://www.medwet.org/news/news_announcements.html
AYRE LEAVES STAKEHOLDER
FORUM FOR DEFRA
Georgina Ayre will be
leaving Stakeholder Forum for Our Common Future on 1 October, where she
was Head of Policy and Research, to join the UK’s Department of
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as a Policy Advisor.
AUGUST
HEPWORTH TAKES OVER AS NEW CMS EXECUTIVE
SECRETARY
Robert Hepworth, formerly Head of Global
Wildlife in the UK at DEFRA and Deputy Director of UNEP’s Division for
Environmental Conventions, is the new Executive Secretary of the
Convention on Migratory Species. Robert Hepworth is replacing former CMS
Executive Secretary Arnulf
Müller-Helmbrecht, who retired from UN service at the end of July 2004
to return to the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature
Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Read the CMS’s press
release on
Hepworth’s appointment and
Müller-Helmbrecht’s retirement.
JIM
WILLIS TO LEAVE UNEP
CHEMICALS FOR US EPA
Jim Willis, Director of UNEP Chemicals, will depart in October to serve
as Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of
Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Chemical Control Division. Willis has
been Director of UNEP Chemicals since 1995, where he has served as
Executive Secretary for the Stockholm and Rotterdam Conventions.
SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR APPOINTED TO
INVESTIGATE EFFECTS OF TOXIC WASTE DUMPING ON HUMAN RIGHTS
The UN Commission on Human Rights has
appointed Okechukwu Ibeanu, a Nigerian environmental expert, as the
Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the illicit movement and
dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of
human rights and on the companies and countries involved in such the
practices. Ibeanu will serve as Special Rapporteur until 2007. He
succeeds Fatma-Zohra Ouhachi-Vesely of Algeria, who served as Special
Rapporteur when the mandate was established in 1995 until July 2004.
According to the UNCHR, the new Special
Rapporteur would make “a global, multidisciplinary study of existing
problems and new trends of and solutions to illicit traffic and dumping
of toxic and dangerous products and wastes, particularly in developing
countries,” as well as “concrete recommendations and proposals on
adequate measures to control, reduce and eradicate these phenomena.”
Ibeanu is also to “produce annually a list of the countries and
transnational corporations engaged in the illicit dumping of toxic and
dangerous products and wastes in African and other developing countries
and a census of human persons killed, maimed or otherwise injured in the
developing countries through this heinous act.”
More
information is available at:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11629&Cr=toxic&Cr1=
ANNAN APPOINTS SPECIAL ADVISER ON
GENDER ISSUES
Rachel Mayanja has been appointed
Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women to UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Currently the Director of the Human
Resources Management Division at the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization, Mayanja succeeds Assistant-Secretary-General Angela King,
who retired earlier this year. More information is available at:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11622&Cr=gender&Cr1=
NEW FACES AT UNFF
Two new faces - David Henderson-Howat and Michel Laverdiere -
recently joined the United Nations Forum on Forests’ Secretariat to work
on forest policy issues. Henderson-Howat was previously the director of
policy studies and Chief Conservator Scotland in the UK’s Forestry
Commission. Laverdiere has previously worked on international forest
policy development for the Canadian International Development Agency and
most recently worked for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on
national forestry programmes and national and regional forest policies
in East and Southern Africa.
NEW RAMSAR
OCEANIA ADVISER FOR OCEANIA
The Ramsar Convention has named Seiuli Vainuupo Jungblut
as its new subregional adviser for Oceania. Jungblut, a former official
with the Samoan Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, will work
under the supervision of the South Pacific Regional Environment
Programme (SPREP) to provide the Small Islands States and Territories of
the Oceania region with support in the area of wetlands and water
conservation and management, and help them join and implement the Ramsar
Convention. For more information visit:
http://www.ramsar.org/w.n.oceania_advisor.pdf
ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION NAMES RODIN AS
NEW PRESIDENT
Judith Rodin is slated to
serve as the Rockefeller Foundation’s new President. Rodin, former
president of the University of Pennsylvania, will succeed Gordon Conway
in March 2005, to become the first female president of the Rockefeller
Foundation, an international New York City-based philanthropic
institution.
More information.
JULY
OZONE DEPUTY TO RETIRE
Michael Graber, the Deputy Executive
Secretary of the Ozone Secretariat, is set to retire in October. Mr.
Graber was given a standing ovation for his “faithful and exemplary
service” at a Montreal Protocol Working Group meeting in July (see the
“Recent Meetings” section). Delegates expressed the hope that, although
he was officially retiring after eight years’ service as Deputy
Executive, Mr. Graber would continue to give the ozone community the
benefit of his expertise. The Secretariat is likely to name a successor
at the 16th Meeting of Parties to the Montreal Protocol (MOP-16) in
November 2004.
OBITUARY:
OZONE COMMUNITY MOURNS
EXPERT’S DEATH
Ozone experts are mourning the passing of
Gérard Mégie, a French national who was co-chair of the Montreal
Protocol’s Scientific Assessment Panel. Delegates attending the Montreal
Protocol’s Open-ended Working Group in July observed a minute’s silence.
Fellow Panel co-Chair Daniel Albritton described his former colleague as
a “brilliant” leader who had championed the links between ozone
depletion and climate change, as well as further dialogue between
science and society. Mr. Mégie would be sorely missed, both
professionally and personally, Albritton said. Mr. Mégie was also Chair
of the French National Center for Scientific Research, and received
numerous prizes and awards recognizing his ongoing contributions to
science. For more information, visit:
http://www.cnrs.fr/cw/en/accu/divs/megieEng.pdf
NAFTA ARBITRATION BOSS QUITS
The head of the US State
Department’s North American Free Trade Agreement arbitration division
has resigned to return to the private sector. Barton Legum, who led the
defense of arbitrations against the US under the NAFTA’s investment
chapter, is set to rejoin Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, an international
dispute resolution practice. Legum worked at the company for 12 years
before joining the US Government. He is expected to join the firm’s
Paris office. Andrea J. Menaker replaces Legum at the NAFTA arbitration
division. For more information, visit:
http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2004/investment_investsd_july16_2004.pdf
CHANGES AT
UNEP-WCMC
Current UNEP-WCMC Director Mark Collins will be
transferred to UNEP headquarters in Nairobi to guide the development of
UNEP’s overall biodiversity strategy and a new UNEP-WCMC Director will
be recruited. Meanwhile Kaveh Zahedi, UNEP DEWA’s Regional Coordinator
for Latin America and the Caribbean, will act as Officer in Charge and
serve as the Centre’s interim director.
ARBOUR ASSUMES DUTIES AS UN HIGH
COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Louise Arbour has begun her
duties as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Canadian
Supreme Court Justice replaces Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in
August 2003 in a bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad. In the
1990s, Arbour served as chief prosecutor for international tribunals
dealing with war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and genocide in Rwanda.
More information is available at:
http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/
1E853C8917A16568C1256EC4002B9376?opendocument
PRONK APPOINTED AS SPECIAL REP FOR SUDAN,
SIR RICHARD JOLLY RETURNS TO CHAIR WSSCC
Following his appointment by UN Secretary-General as Special
Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk has decided to step down from his
position as Chair of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative
Council (WSSCC). At Pronk’s suggestion, and following agreement by the
WSSCC Steering Committee, Sir Richard Jolly has agreed to take over his
previous role as head of the Council. Sir Richard has expressed his
desire that this appointment not be a long term solution, and WSSCC is
initiating a search process to identify and approach suitable candidates
to fill the key position. More information is available at:
http://www.wsscc.org/index2.cfm?CFID=50806&CFTOKEN=90812137
CHANGING FACES AT UNFF
Susan Braatz, who was an FAO
secondment with the UN Forum on Forests, ended a three year term as
Senior Forest Policy Officer responsible for the forest policy
coordination group. Peter Csoka, formerly Director General of Hungary’s
State Forest Service, has joined the UNFF Secretariat as a new Senior
Forest Policy Officer. Kyaw Kyaw Shane retired after more than 20 years
of service to the United Nations. During the past four years, he worked
in the UNFF Secretariat as a Senior Forest Policy Officer.
JUNE
IISD ANNOUNCES NEW BOARD MEMBERS
The International Institute
for Sustainable Development has announced the appointment of seven new
members to its board of directors. The new directors, who come from a
wide range of backgrounds and professions, are:
Stephanie Cairns (Canada), John Michael
Forgách (Brazil), Daniel Gagnier (Canada), Gordon McBean (Canada), Jane
Rigby (Canada), Mohamed Sahnoun (Algeria), and Mary Simon (Canada). IISD
is the publisher of Linkages Update and Earth Negotiations
Bulletin. For more information on the appointments, visit:
http://www.iisd.org/media/2004/june_10_2004.asp
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY ELECTS SECRETARY-GENERAL AND ASSEMBLY AND
COUNCIL PRESIDENTS
On 3 June, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) Assembly elected
Satya Nandan (Fiji) to a third four-year term as Secretary-General,
while a few days earlier on 24 May,
Dennis Francis (Trinidad and
Tobago) and Baidy Diéne (Senegal) were elected Presidents of the
ISA Assembly and Council respectively for 2004.
Headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica, the
ISA is
an autonomous international organization established under the 1982
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to organize and control
activities of the ocean’s seabed and ocean floor and subsoil. For more
information:
http://www.isa.org.jm/en/
MAY
ANTARCTIC
TREATY APPOINTS EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
Jan Huber, the Netherlands,
has been appointed the first ever Executive Secretary of the Antarctic
Treaty. Huber is expected to take up his position at the seat of the
Antarctic Treaty Secretariat in Buenos Aires, Argentina in September
2004. More information is available at:
http://www.environment.gov.za/NewsMedia/MedStat/2004May26/
antarticTreaty_26052004.html
UNCCD
SECRETARIAT HIRES NEW PRESS OFFICER
Michel Smitall
has taken over Chemin Gloria Kwan’s position in the UNCCD Secretariat’s
press office. Smitall comes to the UNCCD from the UNFCCC Secretariat
and can be reached at
press@unccd.int
APRIL
ANGELA KING RETIRES
Angela King,
Assistant-Secretary-General, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the
Advancement of Women, and head of the DESA eponymous office, retired on
30 April 2004 after almost 40 years of service at the United Nations,
including seven years in her role as Special Adviser on the Advancement
of Women. On her last International Women’s Day before retiring,
Secretary General Annan said she has been “a true trailblazer on behalf
of women inside the United Nations and in the world at large.” For the
Secretary-General’s comments, see:
http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=806
RATO TO TAKE REINS AT IMF
Rodrigo Rato of Spain is set to take over as the new head of the
International Monetary Fund, according to reports. The former finance
minister secured the backing of the European Union in April, beating out
Jean Lemierre of France, who heads the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development. Traditionally, the top job at the IMF has gone to a
European, while the head of the World Bank is American. The European and
US dominance of the IMF and World Bank hierarchy has been criticized in
recent years, particularly among developing countries. The G-24, an
alliance of developing nations, has criticized the latest selection
process for failing to deliver the “good governance, transparency and
inclusiveness widely advocated by the IMF and the World Bank in their
relations with member countries.” More information is available:
BBC news;
the G-24
criticism of the selection process; and
Rato's
first press conference.
IRRI DIRECTOR GENERAL
RESIGNS
The International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) announced that its Director General, Ronald P.
Cantrell, will resign at the end of 2004. More information is available
at:
http://www.irri.org/media/press/press.asp?id=83
CDM EXECUTIVE BOARD ELECTS CHAIR AND
VICE-CHAIR
The
Executive Board of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism has
elected its Chair for 2004-2005. John Shaibu Kilani of South Africa was
named Chair, while Norway’s Georg Borsting will be Vice-Chair. Denmark’s
Hans Jürgen Stehr was the outgoing Chair, while Franz Tattenbach
Capra of Costa Rica was last year’s Vice-Chair.
The Board is responsible for supervising the CDM. For more
information on the appointments, visit:
http://cdm.unfccc.int/EB/Meetings/013/eb13rep.pdf
JOHN
HERITY BECOMES NEW IUCN CANADA OFFICE DIRECTOR
John Herity has been appointed as Director of the IUCN Canada Office.
Herity will leave his post as Director of the Biodiversity Convention
Office in Environment Canada and assume his responsibilities at IUCN in
mid-April. More information is available at:
http://www.iucn.org/info_and_ne\ws/press/biojherity.pdf
MARCH
EMISSIONS ASSOCIATION ESTABLISHES NEW
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE
The Emissions Marketing Association has
announced the creation of a European Advisory Committee. The Committee
will help develop a European Chapter that will focus on the region’s
rapidly evolving carbon emissions market. The Chapter will be based in
Brussels.
The news follows recent announcements
that the Association, which is headquartered in the US, is actively
seeking to expand its operations by forming new chapters in different
countries and regions. The Committee members for Europe will be: James
Atkins (Vertis Environmental Finance); Dietrich Borst (Bundesverband
Emissionshandel und Klimaschutz); Jaap Jansen (Energy Research Center of
the Netherlands); Jos Cozijnsen (consulting attorney - energy and
environment); Adrian Hull (Eaga Partnership); Chris Hunter (Johnson &
Johnson); Emma Johansson (BP); Pascal Mallien (Baker and McKenzie); and
Delia Villagrasa (European Business Council for Sustainable Energy). For
more information, visit:
http://www.emissions.org/media/03152004.html
IMF HEAD QUITS
International Monetary Fund Managing
Director Horst Köhler has resigned following his nomination for the
German presidency. He has been replaced by First Deputy Managing
Director Anne Krueger, who will head the Fund until the Executive Board
names a successor to Mr. Köhler. The surprise resignation, made on 4
March, was effective immediately. A former deputy finance minister in
Germany in the early 1990s, Köhler had been with the fund since May
2000.
According to news reports, Köhler’s
sudden resignation has rekindled ongoing disputes over the selection
process used to appoint the heads of the Fund and the World Bank.
Reuters says IMF sources have identified Jean
Lemierre (France), Andrew Crockett (UK),
Caio Koch-Weser (Germany), Rodrigo Rato
(Spain), Mario Draghi (Italy), and Gordon Brown (UK) as potential
candidates for the chief IMF post. In the past, the Fund has been
directed by a European, while the World Bank presidency is held by an
American. Developing countries have been critical of this approach. For
more information, visit the IMF website:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2004/pr0443.htm and news
coverage in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31701-2004Mar4.html
OZONE FUND NAMES NEW HEAD
Maria Nolan has been appointed as the new
Chief Officer of the Secretariat for the Multilateral Fund for
Implementation of the Montreal Protocol. Nolan was previously the Head
of Stratospheric Ozone Policy in the UK, as well as President of the
Montreal Protocol’s Implementation Committee and co-chair of the
Protocol’s Open Ended Working Group.
She succeeds
Dr Omar El-Arini of Egypt, who retired after managing the Secretariat
since it was first established in 1991.
The Fund aims
to assist developing countries that are parties to the Montreal Protocol
to comply with the control measures for ozone-depleting substances set
out under the treaty. The Fund is managed by an Executive Committee,
which in 2004 will be chaired by Marcia Levaggi of Argentina, with Paul
Krajnik of Austria as Vice Chair. Since 1991, the Fund has approved
activities worth about US$1.6 billion to secure the phase-out of
approximately 180,000 tonnes of ozone-depleting substances.
More information on the appointment is available online at:
http://www.unmfs.org/PDF/PRChiefOfficer.pdf
NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION NAMES
PRESIDENT AND CEO
Larry Schweiger has been
appointed the new president and chief executive officer of the National
Wildlife Federation (NWF). Schweiger, who will begin his new position on
5 April 2004, has previously served as president and CEO of the Western
Pennsylvania Conservancy. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, US, the NWF
is a US conservation organization that seeks to create solutions that
balance the needs of people and wildlife for present and future
generations. More information is available at:
http://www.nwf.org/about/newPresident2004.cfm
FEBRUARY
UN APPOINTS NEW HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS
Louise Arbour of Canada has been named the new UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights. The Canadian Supreme Court Justice replaces Sergio Vieira
de Mello, who was killed last August in a bomb attack on the UN
headquarters in Baghdad. In the 1990s, Arbour served as chief prosecutor
for international tribunals dealing with war crimes in the former
Yugoslavia and genocide in Rwanda. Arbour will begin her new post in
June after her appointment is approved by the UN General Assembly. More
information is available at:
http://www.unwire.org/News/328_426_13360.asp
WTO ANNOUNCES NEW CHAIRPERSONS
The World Trade Organization
has announced its chairpersons for the next year. In total, 21 chairs
have been named for the WTO’s various bodies, which include a variety of
committees, working groups, councils, and special sessions. The list was
made public earlier this month after being endorsed by the WTO’s General
Council.
Key appointments
include Japanese Ambassador Shotaro Oshima as chair of the General
Council. Meanwhile, Kenya’s Amina Mohamed will take charge of the
Dispute Settlement Body,
Naéla Gabr of Egypt will chair the Trade and Environment Committee, and
Trevor Clarke of Barbados will run the Committee on Trade and
Development. Joshua Law (Hong Kong, China) will chair the TRIPS
(Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property) Council. For a full
listing of appointments for 2004, visit:
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres04_e/pr371_e.htm
WBCSD ANNOUNCES NEW CHAIR
Bertrand Collomb has been elected the
new Chair of the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
The Chairman and CEO of Lafarge, a world leading building materials
manufacturer, Collomb is taking over the two-year Chairmanship from Sir
Philip Watts of Shell. More information is available at:
http://www.wbcsd.org/includes/getTarget.asp?type=DocDet&id=4046
NEW RAMSAR ASSISTANT AFRICA ADVISOR
Ahmed El-Sabban of Egypt has
started his new position as the Ramsar Convention Secretariat’s new
assistant advisor for Africa. El Sabban, previously working with the
Egyptian Ministry of Environment’s on a GEF/UNDP project on medicinal
plants, will replace Nassima Aghanim and report to Senior Advisor for
Africa Abou Bamba. For more information visit the Ramsar Convention
website:
http://www.ramsar.org/w.n.html
CAMILLA TOULMIN APPOINTED NEW IIED
DIRECTOR
Camilla Toulmin has been
appointed Director of the International Institute for Environment and
Development (IIED). Toulmin joined IIED in 1987 to set up the Drylands
Programme. Prior to this, she worked for the International Livestock
Research Institute and the Overseas Development Institute, and was a
member of the International Expert Panel supporting the preparation of
the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. Toulmin was appointed to
the position of acting Director of IIED in July 2003 following the
resignation of former Director Nigel Cross, who left the organization on
the grounds of ill health. More information is available at:
http://www.iied.org/aboutiied/press.html#040204
JANUARY
MARJATTA RASI ELECTED FIRST FEMALE
PRESIDENT OF ECOSOC
Ambassador Marjatta Rasi,
Finland’s Permanent Representative to the UN, has been elected President
of the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Finland’s Ambassador
to the UN since 1998, Ms. Rasi succeeds Ambassador Gert Rosenthal
(Guatemala) to become the first woman ever to take the helm at ECOSOC.
More information is available at:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=9534&Cr=ecosoc&Cr1=
BARBUT APPOINTED NEW HEAD OF UNEP-DTIE
Monique
Barbut has been appointed the new Director of the Technology, Industry
and Economics Division at the United Nations Environment Programme.
Barbut,
a
French national, was previously in charge of operations for her
country’s overseas departments and territories, and was the Director for
all Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Ocean activities at the French Agency
for Development. She brings considerable expertise in the international
sustainable development finance field.
Barbut has been
DTIE�s officer in charge since last September, succeeding Jacqueline
Aloisi de Larderel who retired from UNEP in April 2003. More information is
available at:
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/
Default.asp?DocumentID=370&ArticleID=4338&l=en
NEW IMO SECRETARY-GENERAL
As of 1 January 2004,
Efthimios Mitropoulos (Greece) took over as head of the International
Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations agency responsible for
maritime safety and security and the prevention of marine pollution from
ships. Mitropoulos joined the IMO Secretariat in January 1979 as
Implementation Officer in the Maritime Safety Division and served in a
number of roles before being designated Assistant Secretary-General in
May 2000. He was elected Secretary-General at the 90th session of the
IMO Council in June 2003 and his appointment was approved at the 23rd
regular session of the IMO Assembly in November 2003. More information:
http://www.imo.org/home.asp
NEW WETLANDS INTERNATIONAL CEO
Jane Madgwick, formerly with
the WWF�s Global Living Waters Programme, has been named the new CEO of
Wetlands International. She will take up her new post in March 2004.
More information is available at:
http://www.wetlands.org/news&/NewsItems/CEO.htm
DAVID MORGAN APPOINTED HEAD OF CITES
SCIENTIFIC UNIT
David Morgan has been
appointed Head of the CITES Scientific Unit. A British national with
extended experience in CITES scientific and implementation matters,
Morgan was also Chair of Committee I at CITES COP-12. He will take up
his new post in February/March 2004. For more information:
http://www.cites.org/eng/news/sundry/sec_new_staff0311.shtml
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