The UN's big power job monopoly

If you harbor dreams of one day leading the United Nations far-flung humanitarian empire, I have some advice: get a British passport. Or if peacekeeping and development are your thing, get a French or Chinese one. Some of the most sought-after cabinet-level jobs in the U.N. system are effectively off-limits to anyone from a country whose government lacks the power to cast vetoes in the U.N. Security Council. For the rest of the world’s population, get in another line. Many of the remaining jobs, chairs, or commissions are parceled out on the basis of an arcane rotation system, which gives precedent to U.N. regional groups representing Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and the West. The practice, which has long been a source of frustration for reform-minded U.N. advocates, routinely results in embarrassing and inappropriate appointments: A Saudi diplomat, for instance, will chair the Commission on the Status of Women because, well, it was Saudi Arabia’s turn. The recent announcement by Martin Griffiths, U.N. emergency relief coordinator, to step down from his job later this month, has fed a campaign to mount a proper global search for a successor. The position has been held without interruption by five British nationals since 2007. And all signs indicate that António Guterres, the U.N.’s secretary-general, will select another for the job. Still, each time the post opens, the U.N. invites candidates from around the world to vie for a position they have no chance of getting. “The U.N. needs to do better,” said Ben Donaldson, a co-editor of the Blue Smoke campaign, which advocates a greater focus on merit for senior U.N. jobs. “There is a vast global talent pool locked out of these top roles. It seems pretty dumb to reduce the concentration of top roles to such a small talent pool.” Griffiths doesn’t disagree. He knows he owes his job, at least in part, to the accident of birth. Griffiths, who unlike some of his predecessors has extensive experience in humanitarian operations, was not his government's pick. Guterres overruled the U.K.’s official nominees, choosing a veteran U.N. diplomatic and humanitarian troubleshooter. He previously served as the U.N. envoy for peace efforts in Yemen. “It’s a very strange system, which keeps certain positions for the permanent five members,” Griffiths conceded in a podcast with The New Humanitarian after accepting the post. “I was very pleased that the British government did not support my candidature for this job.” “This is too crucial a job to be left to favoritism,” he said. The case for British leadership — it was among the most generous when the U.K. first landed the U.N.’s top humanitarian job in 2007 — has grown less compelling as the U.K. aid budget has shrunk. The aid cuts, according to Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, “has sadly diminished the UK’s global humanitarian leadership. So I hope the SG [secretary-general] will open up the process to a wider pool.” The race for UN relief chief The search for a new emergency relief coordinator has fed a lively diplomatic rumor mill, with U.N.-based diplomats exchanging notes on who they think might be in the running. It is unclear, however, how many of these individuals have formally applied for the job or even have any interest in it. Among the initial names circulating in U.N. diplomatic circles are Conservative politicians, including: • Tariq Ahmad, the U.K. minister for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, U.N., and the Commonwealth. • Alistair Burt, who previously held the same job. • Rory Stewart, who once ran an unsuccessful campaign for prime minister. • Andrew Mitchell, the U.K. international development minister. Their prospects, however, have dimmed considerably as the Labour Party looks increasingly likely to win the July 4 election. Other names in the Labour camp include: • David Miliband, who once served as the U.K. foreign minister and is currently president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (a spokesperson said he is committed to his current job). • Catherine Ashton, former high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy. A number of British diplomats are also in the mix: • Barbara Woodward, U.K.’s permanent representative to the U.N. (she hasn’t applied for the post, but who knows). • Mark Bryson Richardson, a British diplomat who serves as foreign secretary and David Cameron’s representative for humanitarian affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. • Karen Pierce, the U.K. ambassador to the United States (she hasn’t applied and it is unclear if she is interested). The slate of possibles includes a handful of current and former senior U.N. officials, including: • Sigrid Kaag, a Dutch national who serves as senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza. • Nicholas Kay, former British ambassador to Afghanistan who served as U.N. special representative to Somalia. • Robert Piper, an Australian national who serves as the U.N. secretary-general’s special adviser on solutions to internal displacement. He is also said to carry a British passport. David Shearer, a former New Zealand Labour leader who has spent decades as a U.N. aid official, including a stint as the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, is also in contention, according to a report by Passblue. However, it remains unlikely that a non-British national will ultimately be selected. One U.N.-based diplomat said Andrew Morley — the British pastor who heads World Vision and serves on the U.N.’s Inter-Agency Standing Committee, which includes senior members of U.N. agencies and leading NGOs — has come up in conversations. “The U.N. needs to do better. There is a vast global talent pool locked out of these top roles.” --— Ben Donaldson, co-editor, Blue Smoke For the time being, Guterres does not appear to be in a hurry to have someone in place when Griffiths steps down in the coming weeks, according to three diplomats. The disarray that inevitably follows the ousting of a party in office for decades may give Guterres more latitude to pick someone he favors. In the meantime, Guterres is expected to appoint an interim relief coordinator to relieve Griffiths when he steps down at the end of the month, possibly his deputy, Joyce Msuya. But he is taking his time to pick a successor, who is all but certain to be a U.K. national. UN Charter rules bypassed The U.N. and its many agencies constitute a sprawling institution that employs some 83,000 staff from 190 nationalities in 474 duty stations worldwide, according to U.N. figures The New York-headquartered secretariat only employs about 37,000 staffers, though it saw a 25.5% bump in the recruitment of outside staffers between April 2021 and the end of 2022. The U.N. Charter outlines the basic conditions of employment in the U.N. civil service, prioritizing merit and regional representation. “The paramount consideration in the employment of the staff and in the determination of the conditions of service shall be the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity,” it states in Article 101. “Due regard shall be paid to the importance of recruiting the staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible.” But those rules do not apply to the big powers at the highest levels, even if countries such as the U.S. and China are officially categorized as underrepresented in the U.N. secretariat. Former U.S. diplomats have held the top U.N. political job, undersecretary general for political affairs, since 2007; French officials have run the U.N. peacekeeping department since 1997, after Kofi Annan vacated the post to become U.N. secretary-general; while China and Russia have locks on the U.N. secretariat’s top development and counter-terrorism jobs. Between 1995 and 2022, the permanent five member states received more than 20% of senior appointments, while they account for only 3% of U.N. membership, according to an assessment by New York University’s Center for International Cooperation. During this period, U.S. nationals held more than 50% of those appointments. The United Kingdom had a quarter. The U.N.’s intergovernmental bodies are hardly more equitable. The U.N. Security Council — which is dominated by five permanent veto-wielding members: China, France, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S. — has long been a source of bitterness among the vast majority of the U.N.’s 193 member states. Each year, the U.N. General Assembly selects five countries for two-year terms on the 15-member U.N. Security Council. Those rotating council members like to refer to themselves as the E10, or elected 10, to distinguish themselves from the big five. But the E10 isn't always elected. This year, the five new members — Denmark, Greece, Somalia, Pakistan, and Panama — ran uncontested elections. “Uncontested elections for seats on the Security Council or any other UN body make a mockery of the word ‘election,’” Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement after the vote. “Member countries should give themselves a choice so governments responsible for serious human rights abuses can be rejected.” “That's what happened last year, when #Belarus was defeated in a competitive election for the Eastern European group’s council seat,” he added. Many of the rules that govern recruitment have never been put down on paper. The recruitment of U.N. special representatives, the folks who lead U.N. diplomatic and field missions, is highly opaque. Although they are expected to serve as international civil servants, loyal only to the U.N. and its secretary-general, they often owe their jobs to foreign powers. The way it works: The U.N. secretary-general will conduct a worldwide search for a special representative. When he identifies a worthy candidate, he will write a letter to the Security Council’s five members expressing an intent to appoint them. If one of the permanent five members objects, he will withdraw the nominee and try again. Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., blocked the appointment of a Palestinian politician, Salam Fayyad, as the U.N. chief special representative to Libya on the grounds he was Palestinian. Russia blocked a British diplomat, Nicholas Kay, from taking on the same job. If you don’t have a political benefactor, there is still hope to break your way into the U.N. civil service. But it’s not easy. The U.N. gives priority to workers already in the system, who are either looking to move to a new job or have been forced out as the result of a U.N. mission being shuttered. If a hiring manager wants to select someone from outside the U.N., they can but they just have to justify why they are selecting them over the others. “The machine is still very much geared to keeping those already in the system inside for their next gig,” said one U.N. official. “It’s very hard to break in from the outside but it can of course be done.” The U.N. has a series of early entry programs, including the U.N. Volunteers, the Junior Professional Officer Program, and the Young Professionals Program. For others, you have to apply online for a job, take a written test, and endure a round of interviews. Applicants generally require at least a master's degree and some three to five years of working experience. It helps if that work is somehow related, such as a role in government or a nongovernmental organization. “It is still highly competitive and always helpful to have someone in the system help you,” the U.N. official said. But if you don’t have the right passport, your dreams of rising up the ranks may be cut short.