Mark Malloch Brown
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Mark Malloch Brown (born 1953 in Rhodesia), a British national, is Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. His term of office began on 1 April, 2006 and will end on 31 December, 2006. He is a former journalist, development specialist and communications consultant.
Early life and education
Born in Rhodesia in 1953, Malloch Brown was educated at Marlborough College, and earned a First Class Honours Degree in History from Magdalene College, Cambridge and a Master's Degree in Political Science from the University of Michigan.
Early Career
He was the political correspondent at The Economist between 1977 and 1979, and founding editor of the Economist Development Report.
Following this he worked for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and was stationed in Thailand where he was in charge of field operations for Cambodian refugees. In 1983 Malloch Brown contemplated running as an SDP candidate in the 1983 UK General election but was not selected as a parliamentary candidate for the party[link].
In 1986 Malloch Brown joined the Sawyer-Miller Group as the lead international partner. While at Sawyer-Miller he was amongst the first communication consultants to use US-style election campaign methods for foreign governments, companies and public policy debates. His international assignments included work in Peru and Columbia.
World Bank/UN
In 1994 Malloch Brown joined the World Bank as Vice-President for External Affairs, which included responsibility for relations with the United Nations.
In 1999 he moved to the United Nations where he was Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. During his time he spear-headed a number of reforms, including the creation of the United Nations Development Group, chaired by Malloch Brown as the Administrator of UNDP, which co-ordinates the activities of all the UN's development programmes. Internally at UNDP he expanded UNDP's activities (controversially, often in competition with other UN agencies) and improved resource mobilisation from donor countries. Perhaps most importantly he was a key architect of the Millenium Development Goals which were adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in December 2000.
In January 2005 Malloch Brown was appointed Chef de Cabinet to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, retaining his position as Administrator of UNDP until the appointment of his successor.
Deputy Secretary General
Appointment
On 3rd March 2006 it was announced that Mark Malloch Brown would succeed Louise Fréchette as Deputy Secretary General on 1st April 2006. He is the second person to hold this post in the UN's history. As the appointment is made by the UN Secretary-General and not the UN General Assembly, Malloch Brown's term of office will end with the completion of Kofi Annan's term at the end of 2006. Malloch Brown has privately indicated that he will not seek office under the next Secretary-General either as his deputy or in any other UN position.
Controversy
On June 6, 2006, while addressing a conference in New York, he criticised the US Government for allowing “too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping”. He stated that much of the political dialogue in the US about the UN had been abdicated to its most strident critics, such as conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh and the Fox News cable channel and, as a result of this, the true role and value of the UN has become "a mystery in Middle America". These remarks resulted in a call by US envoy to the UN John Bolton for an apology from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Trivia
Mr Malloch Brown became an Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society in 2005.
References
- [Deputy Secretary-General] [former UNDP Administrator] Mark Malloch Brown official biographies from the UN
- [link] Interview in The Guardian Newspaper, 12th January 2005
- [UN News Centre - Deputy Secretary-General calls for stepped-up US engagement with UN] reports June 6, 2006 speech, followed by [Annan backs deputy’s call for greater US engagement with UN] on June 7
- [transcript of June 6, 2006 speech] and [transcript of Ambassador John Bolton's reply]
- ["The Best Hope for Peace in Darfur"] recorded on April 19, 2006 at [The New York Society for Ethical Culture], mp3 format
- [UN appoints Briton as new chief of staff] The Guardian 4 January 2004
- [Key role for Briton in halting crisis at UN] Daily Telegraph 4 January 2004
- [British aide heads Annan reshuffle at UN] The Times 4 January 2004
- [UN Television - World Chronicle: Microfinance] transcript of a half-hour interview with UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown on December 20, 2004 [video]
- [Apologise or we'll cut your funding, US envoy tells UN - World - Times Online] The Times 9 June 2006
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