Ban Ki-moon appoints Valerie Amos, who sat in Tony Blair's cabinet, after getting David Cameron's blessing.
Lady Amos, who has been named as the top UN official in charge of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief. Photograph: Reuters
Lady Amos, the first black woman to sit in the cabinet, was today appointed as the most senior UN official in charge of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, announced the appointment of Amos as under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief after David Cameron gave his blessing.
Amos, 56, currently the British high commissioner to Australia, became the first black woman to sit in the cabinet when she replaced Clare Short for a brief stint as international development secretary in 2003. She then served as leader of the House of Lords until 2007 when Gordon Brown nominated her as the EU's special representative to the African Union.
British officials were delighted by the appointment of Amos, who will replace Sir John Holmes, the former British ambassador to Paris, to become the most senior British figure at the UN.
The appointment is made by the UN secretary general, though he did so after a signal from Cameron, who met Amos yesterday.
"This is a massively significant job, one of the top five at the UN," one source said. "It would be unthinkable for Britain not to have one of the top five jobs.
France has peacekeeping, the US has political affairs and China has health. It makes sense for Britain, which has pledged to meet the 0.7% target [to spend that amount of gross national income on overseas aid by 2013], to have this job."
Sources said that Cameron, who forwarded just one name to Ban Ki-moon's office, was not appointing a former Labour cabinet minister to try to recreate Tony Blair's famous "big tent" from the other side of the spectrum.
"This is not about big tentery," one source said. "Valerie got the job on merit. She was Africa minister in the Foreign Office before she became development secretary so Valerie is very well known there. She knows her way round. Valerie is also not seen as a political person."
Amos will replace Holmes who was appointed to the UN humanitarian affairs job in January 2007. There were not high hopes for Holmes, who was given the job as a consolation prize after Blair declined to appoint him as ambassador to Washington or head of the Foreign Office.
But Holmes threw himself into job. "The NGOs went for John because they saw him as a grey haired diplomat," one source said. "But he surprised everyone. He has been steady and highly competent."
http://worldbbnews.com/2010/07/lady-amos-given-top-un-humanitarian-affairs-job
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