April 19, 1999 United Nations -- The U.N. chief has selected Mark Malloch Brown, a World Bank vice president, to head the United Nations Development Program, a spokesman said today. The choice of Malloch Brown, from Britain, came as the European Union had been lobbying for a European to take over the U.N. agency, arguing that Washington shouldn't continue to have the top spot while it cuts its aid contributions.
The EU had backed Denmark's development minister, Poul Nielson, for the job after outgoing UNDP chief James Gustave Speth, an American, announced in September that he was leaving.
Secretary General Kofi Annan will formally announce his choice later this week and send Malloch Brown's nomination to the General Assembly for confirmation, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
The UNDP, which operates in 134 countries, is the United Nations' largest source of grant assistance for development. It has been battling to keep donations coming at a time when governments are tightening their aid budgets around the world.
Malloch Brown joined the World Bank in 1994 and was named vice president for external relations two years later. He has worked for the United Nations as vice president for U.N. Affairs and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Thailand and Geneva. He was deputy chief of the UNHCR emergency unit in 1991, when the agency was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speth will become dean of Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
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