Womens network accuses UN of giving into political pressure in Spaniards appointment
NEW YORK, 9. April 2008: A Third World women’s network accused the United Nations on Tuesday of bowing to political pressure and choosing a Spaniard to head the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) rather than one of its founders who was recommended by the selection panel.
Spanish sociologist Ines Alberdi, a former member of the Madrid Assembly who served as an expert in the European Unions Equal Opportunities Unit and has done extensive research on gender issues, was selected Monday by UN Development Program Administrator Kemal Dervis in consultation with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNIFEMs consultative committee.
DAWN, a network of Third World researchers, activists, and policymakers working for gender justice, said in an open letter that it is “dismayed by the way in which the UN has made the appointment” since the UN panel that interviewed six short-listed candidates “identified one person, Dr. Gita Sen, as outstanding and recommended her for the position.”
Sen, an Indian gender expert, is a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore and an adjunct lecturer at the Center for Population and Development Studies at Harvard Universitys School of Public Health. She is a founding member of DAWN, which stands for Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era.
“None of the others were ranked as appropriate for this post,” said the letter from DAWNs Steering Committee, led by Bene Madunagu, who heads the Girls Power Initiative in Nigeria.
“However, because of the UNs concerns over funding, and significant and open political pressure from the government of Spain, other names from the short-list were brought back into consideration”.
Womens rights groups noted that according to the UNIFEM 2006-2007 annual report, the funds leading donor was Spain at 7,26 million euro.
UNIFEM provides financial and technical assistance to programs in countries around the world to promote womens rights and gender equality.
It focuses particularly on efforts to reduce poverty affecting women, ending violence against women, reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among girls and women, and promoting women in the political arena in peacetime and war.
When Alberdis appointment was announced, Dervis also said that Ban has appointed an Indian research and policy expert with the World Bank, Ajay Chhibber, as assistant secretary-general, assistant administrator of UNDP, and director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific.
– The selection process was comprehensive, it was extensive, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said of Alberdis appointment.
– It took into account both the challenges that UNIFEM faces and the broader requirements of strengthening gender focus work within the whole gender architecture of the United Nations. It was done in close cooperation with the board that was choosing the candidates and the secretary-general and the director of the UNDP, Montas said.
Adrienne Germain, president of the International Womens Health Coalition, said Monday that “the conclusions and recommendations of the interview panel were ignored.”
Alberdis qualifications were not those set for the job, she said, and her appointment “is unfortunately a deviation from established recruitment practice which had identified a candidate last fall who more than met all the required qualifications and is from the South.”
– We are deeply disappointed that the decision has not been made on merit alone but on the basis of factors that should not be considered in a professional level appointment in the UN, she stated.
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