We now have yet another example of why the UN ought to hold public confirmation hearings for top appointments. Of course, given some of the creepier regimes holding UN seats, there’s no guarantee that a public confirmation process would result in higher quality UN top staff (witness how even in the U.S., our tortured confirmation process bounced the best ambassador we’ve sent to the UN in decades — John Bolton). But it would at least provide a tad more information than the hush-hush process with which the new UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, like his predecessors, is now stocking the UN’s top ranks. Take, for instance, his decision announced Friday to appoint as his deputy the foreign minister of Tanzania, a woman named Asha-Rose Migiro.
Pressed at the UN noon briefing for details on Migiro’s qualifications to manage the secretariat of the UN’s sprawling $20-billion-per-year system –with its rich history of waste, fraud and abuse — the spokeswoman cited Migiro’s recent experience chairing a regional conference for the Great Lakes region of Africa.
Maybe that’s all it takes. The U.S. Mission — minus Bolton — has been enthusing about Migiro’s appointment. But there are some mysteries to all this that could stand a lot more explaining. Here are two:
1) The Tanzania connection. Last year, when Ban, a South Korean, was campaigning for the job of UN Secretary-General, Seoul became unusually generous in its largesse to a number of countries, including Tanzania — which happened at the time to hold one of the ten rotating seats on the UN Security Council — and thus had an influential voice in the choice of Ban. In an article published Sept. 29, 2006 and headlined “Millions of dollars and a piano may put Korean in UN’s top job,” the Times of London reported that South Korea last year pledged $18 million in aid to Tanzania, or about four times what it had given in the space of a dozen years from 1991 to 2003. South Korean officials protested that the aid increase was already in the pipeline before Ban’s candidacy, and that there was no link between the two. But it would behoove Ban to explain a lot more about why, of all the candidates in all the world, he tapped Tanzania’s Migiro.
2) The Iranian connection. The item linked here comes courtesy of the Iranian press, via Russia, so let’s not take it at face value. But if Migiro wants to correct the impression this story creates, that she’s fool enough to believe the ayatollahs are all about atoms for peace, and endorse them in their nuclear quest, now would be the time. Maybe while she’s at it, she can tell us more about that reference in the last sentence to the activities of “Iran’s Construction Jihad Bureau in Tanzania.”
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7 Comments
1. curmudgeon:You gotta give that org credit for consistency.
Jan 8, 2007 - 5:41 pm 2. Merkur:It certainly looks like yet another senior UN position purchase, don’t it? The lack of transparency is killing the organisation. Even admitting that the whole thing is based on a barter system would be better than this.
The “Iranian connection” is a red herring, though – the only statement attributed to Migiro is for everybody to uphold the NPT – very warm and fuzzy. It’s hardly a big deal if Iranian spin doctors add an ridiculously misleading tagline to an obscure press release.
Amusingly, “Construction Jihad” seems to get used a lot in Iran to describe everything from building huts to biological weapon research. This seems to be talking about the agricultural development agreement they’ve had since the 1990s. Construction Jihad got merged with MinAg to form the new “Ministry of Agricultural Jihad” (http://www.maj.ir/English/Main/Default.asp).
Snappy title for a bunch of agricultural extension workers…
Jan 9, 2007 - 6:45 am 3. Mark Leon Goldberg:I respectfully disagree with Ms. Rosett’s take on Ms. Migiro’s appointment. You can read my response to Ms. Rosett on UN Dispatch. In short, the qui-pro-quo Rosett alleges simply does not exist. Further, Migiro’s appointment can be considered a boon to the prospect of UN reform.
Jan 10, 2007 - 3:34 pm 4. joan:Mark
I have worked for the UN on several occaisions (next job coming uop soon with them) and I think overall its a great institution.
BUT, the latest appointments by Ban Ki Moon do not inspire confidence in me or my colleagues i know wokring in the UN around the world i.e.
The new British head of OCHA who has ZERO humanitarian experience?
He wouldnt qualify or get a P5 /D1 level job in OCHA; but yet he is allowed to be the head?
And a new Mexican ‘environmentalist’ as head of Dept Mgt and Admin?!
Its a really bad start for Ban Ki Moon and i am speaking as someone who is a strong supporter of the UN.
Jan 10, 2007 - 10:17 pm 5. YankeeHobbit:Mark:
Jan 10, 2007 - 10:31 pm 6. JP:Of course you disagree – thats what the UN Foundation pays you to do. I find it sadly in keeping that your organisation disparages Ms Rosett so often. All her reporting has been fact based and has done more to help than harm the UN – unless you support corruption and cronyism? Pity it takes non-UN personnel to uncover these things, rather than internal investigation.
You would do more to support the UN if you spent your time using your inside track to help uncover the abuses of power and exposing those activities which go against the UN Charter rather than attacking anyone who dares to expose wrong-doing in high places, particularly in the Secretariat. It is not the Utopian dream you want, so try helping to improve it instead of attacking those who expose its weaknesses, before it rots beyond recovery (if its not too late already).
Mark Leon Goldberg’s critique of Claudia Rosett fails to address Ms. Rosett’s concern over Ms. Migiro’s lack of experience for this very important appointment.
Jan 10, 2007 - 11:05 pm 7. Merkur:Mark Leon Goldberg: It’s true that inviting Tanzania to the no.2 spot is also a political choice designed to win friends in the G77. However you have to admit that the selection process is entirely opaque, which leaves the UN open to all sorts of speculation about motives and means.
JP: She was Foreign Minister of Tanzania, before that Minister for Community Affairs; and a senior lecturer in law at the University of Dar-es-Salaam. Plus she’s a female candidate from a developing country, both of which are political bonuses. However the question of management qualifications for this type of organisation is valid…
Jan 11, 2007 - 12:54 am