Sir John Holmes, the highest placed Briton at the UN, is leaving his job early. A long-serving Foreign Office mandarin, Sir John’s appointment by UN chief Ban Ki-Moon to be the UN’s Coordinator for Humanitarian Relief originally came as a surprise. The post is responsible for oversight of all emergencies requiring UN humanitarian assistance, and acts as the focal point for relief activities. Everyone had assumed that the British diplomat’s background lent itself more readily to the top political job at the UN, rather than the humanitarian portfolio.
But Sir John (who will replace Jeremy Greenstock as director of Ditchley Park), has by all accounts done very well in the job and will be missed at the increasingly dysfunctional UN headquarters, which is haemorrhaging senior staff at an alarming rate.
Holmes’s impending departure has set off rumours not only about who will replace him, but about which job Britain might grab should the UN secretary-general reshuffle his top team.
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