The United Nations plans to hold a high-level conference in the year 2001, possibly in New York, to discuss the plight of the world's 48 least developed countries (LDCs). The Geneva-based UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is responsible for organizing the proposed meeting, but its duration and dates have not be finalized. The conference will be the third major UN conferences on the plight of the world's poorest nations, following those held in 1981 and 1990, both in Paris.
Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN Anwarul Karum Chowdhury, who coordinates LDC delegations at the UN, says the status of these poor countries needs to be urgently reviewed, given the failure of the international community to come up with the necessary support for their development.
On 9 February, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other senior officials, meeting with a high-level delegation from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), agreed to collaborate in promoting greater investment flows into Africa and the LDCs. They called on UNCTAD to work with the ICC to prepare a business investment guide to highlight potentially profitable opportunities in the LDCs, which in 1996 attracted only 0.5 per cent of total foreign investment flows.
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Leaders from 12 African countries meeting in Kampala, Uganda, in January urged the World Bank to make the continent a top priority for the 21st century and to permit African countries greater say in how they use the aid they receive. According to sources close to the closed-door meeting, the heads of state of Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as the South African vice-president, were critical of past World Bank policies. World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn, while acknowledging errors by the Bank, asked the African leaders to accept responsibility for their own mistakes as well. The World Bank president is expected to hold a similar meeting for countries in West Africa later this year.
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With the El Niño weather phenomenon already bringing floods, drought, fires and other calamities to countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, donors are gearing up to combat an especially widespread and complex natural disaster (see article Africa braces for El Niño's impact). To help both multilateral and bilateral donors better coordinate their responses, the UN has established an Inter-Agency Task Force on El Niño. It is headed by UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Sergio Vieira de Mello and includes the World Food Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization and more than a dozen other UN and international organizations, with coordination provided by the Geneva-based secretariat of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. One of the immediate aims of the Task Force is to exchange expertise and knowledge on El Niño, as well as to coordinate the development of strategies to counter its impact.
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Ms. Louise Fréchette (Canada) is the first Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, as of the end of February. Her responsibilities include helping to manage UN Secretariat operations and raising the UN profile and leadership in the social and economic sectors. At the time of her new appointment, Ms. Fréchette was Canada's Deputy Minister of National Defence.
Mr. Kensaku Hogen (Japan) has been designated Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. Mr. Hogen, whose new appointment takes effect in mid-March, was last Director-General of the Foreign Service Training Institute at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello (Brazil) has been appointed as UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, with effect from January 1998. At the time of his new appointment Mr. Vieira de Mello was UN Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees.
Mr. Felix C. Downes-Thomas (The Gambia) is now the Secretary-General's Representative in Liberia and head of the UN Peace-building Support Office in the country. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Downes-Thomas was Director of the Complex Emergency Division of the former Department of Humanitarian Affairs.
Mr. Charles Dunbar (US) is the Secretary-General's new Special Representative for Western Sahara. At the time of his appointment, Mr. Dunbar was President and Executive Officer of the Cleveland Council of World Affairs.
Mr. Mohammed Sahnoun (Algeria) has been named as the Secretary-General's Special Envoy in Africa. He served in 1997 as Joint United Nations/Organization of African Unity Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region.
Mr. Berhanu Dinka (Ethiopia), formerly the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Sierra Leone, is now the Secretary-General's Representative and Regional Humanitarian Advisor for the Great Lakes Region.
Norway's former Prime Minister, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, has been elected as the next Director-General of the World Health Organization. Her term will begin in July 1998.
Mr. Lansana Kouyaté (Guinea) is the new Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States. Mr. Kouyaté was formerly Assistant Secretary-General in the UN Department of Political Affairs.
