Delay, but likely business as usual, in WFP appointment

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Some months back, I spoke with a senior contact at the World Food Program about the upcoming end of Josette Sheeran‘s first term as Executive Director of the World Food Program.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meets with Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme. (UN Photo # 466405)

At the time, the Obama Administration had not yet determined if it would re-nominate Josette Sheeran, who was first nominated by President George W. Bush in 2007. Sheeran’s term is up in April 2012 and it was expected that the Obama Administration would announce whether it would support a second term before Friday’s meeting of the WFP Executive Board.

Colum Lynch at Turtle Bay reported last week that the Obama administration has decided not to re-nominate Sheeran, instead pushing the current U.S. representatives on the FAO Executive Board, Ertharin Cousin, for the post. But though the job usually goes to the American nominee, the only response to the nomination has been the sound of crickets.

Ertharin Cousin, Obama's pick for WFP Executive Director (State Dept Photo)

The actual appointment–”not an election,” I was reminded in a follow-up conversation this week–is made by the UN Secretary General and the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization, in consultation with the WFP Executive Board. This means that although Sheeran isn’t supported by the Obama administration, she could still be given a second term if Ban and da Silva so choose. (Also on the short list, according to officials who spoke with Lynch, is Dan Glickman, a former Democrat Congressman and current vice chair of the World Food Program USA organization.)

What “consultation with the Board” means though is entirely up to the Secretary General and Director-General. In previous years, it has taken the form of a formal discussion at a meeting of the Board. At other times, it has been calls to individual Board members. The process is extraordinarily opaque and the WFP Executive Board has little ability to affect the process or its timeline, though the Board president has made overturesin that direction this year.

The President shared with the Board a letter she intended to send to the United Nations Secretary-General concerning Board consultation in the process to appoint or reappoint the WFP Executive Director, whose new term would become effective in April 2012. The letter informed the Secretary-General of the Board’s intention to contribute to an open and transparent process for the appointment, and requested that he provide an indication on the intended timing and mode of consultation.

In the meantime, the official re-iterated that Sheeran is interested in a second term, but is keeping her head down and staying focused on the work at hand.

Lynch noted that some in the Obama administration are concerned that Ban has remained silent because he doesn’t support Cousin’s nomination. (It’s all about them, of course.) More likely though, Ban is simply including the head of the WFP among the other changes he intends to make in his cabinet early next year. I expect that a week or so before the Executive Board’s meeting in February, Ban will praise Sheeran for her service and announce Cousins as his pick. Ban is, after all, still Ban, even in a second term.

As WFP's Sheeran Claws for Reappointment, of Staff Anger, Famine and Astroturf

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 14 -- Alongside Italy's political chaos, the Rome-based UN World Food Program is seeing its own fight to retain power, by Executive Director Josette Sheeran whose term is expiring.

Sources tell Inner City Press that Sheeran is having senior staff lobby Member States to make statements supporting her at the just-opening WFP Executive Board. Members of Sheeran's inner circle are pushing for an Astroturf -- fake grassroots -- staff petition to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to reappoint her.

This comes on top of Sheeran appointing as WFP chief of operations with security responsibilities Ramiro Lopes da Silva, of whom after his role in the Canal Hotel bombing in Iraq Kofi Annan said could never again have security responsibilities in the UN system. Inner City Press has directly asked Sheeran (and Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson) about this, without substantive answer.

Now more WFP money is being wasted, for Sheeran's attempted re-appointment. Sheeran planned a big 50th anniversary celebration for WFP at this Executive Board meeting.

It is not really the 50th anniversary of the agency, as WFP did not start operations until 1963, but it is the anniversary of the signing of the agreement. Anyway, several officials have declined to come, or canceled -- some, sources say, not wanting to be part of Sheeran's re-election campaign.

(c) UN Photo
Sheeran gets picture from Ban, Astroturf not shown

Ban has written to Executive Board members asking for nominations for the Executive Director, though he has not excluded reappointing Sheeran in the letter. The US has already made a submission -- with, multiple sources say, more than one name.

As one Inner City Press source puts it, "the whole thing is turning into an embarrassing circus and Sheeran neglects the Horn of Africa and other crises like WFP's troubled budget to spend all her time campaigning." And so it goes in this UN.