Annan’s chief of staff Malloch Brown named new UN Deputy Secretary-General

3 March 2006 – Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Chef de Cabinet, Mark Malloch Brown, who has played a key role in United Nations reform and development efforts, was today named Deputy Secretary-General as of 1 April, when current incumbent Louise Fréchette steps down.

Mr. Annan decided on the appointment “to ensure that his Executive Office and the United Nations Secretariat is able to carry out the full agenda remaining in his term [ending on 31 December],” spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

Mr. Malloch Brown was Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) from 1999 until being named Chef de Cabinet in January, 2005.

Mr. Dujarric also announced that Vijay Nambiar, currently Deputy National Security Advisor to the Government of India and Head of the National Security Council Secretariat, had been appointed Special Adviser to the Secretary-General, at the level of Under-Secretary-General. Alicia Bárcena of Mexico, Deputy Chef de Cabinet, to the Secretary-General, will become Acting Chef de Cabinet.

As chef de cabinet Mr. Malloch Brown has worked closely with the Mr. Annan and Ms. Fréchette on all aspects of UN work, including helping to set out an ambitious reform agenda.

While UNDP head, he also led UN efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of targets set by the UN Millennium Summit in 2000 which seek to slash a host of socio-economic ills such as extreme poverty and hunger, maternal and infant mortality and lack of access to education and health care, all by 2015.