Ex prime minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, has entered the race to replace Ban Ki-moon as United Nations secretary general in an attempt to become the first woman in the role of top diplomat in the world, the Guardian reports.
Clark, who was New Zealand’s prime minister from 1999 to 2008, threw her hat formally into the ring on Monday. Her high-profile entry into the competition is certain to increase pressure among the power brokers of the UN to appoint a woman as the leading face of diplomacy on the global stage.
Announcing her candidacy in New York shortly after she was nominated for the top post by New Zealand’s current prime minister, John Key, in Wellington, Clark said she believed she had the skills to lead the UN as it faced “very serious challenges”.
“The position of secretary general is about giving a voice to 7 billion people who look to the UN for hope and support,” she said.
Clark’s announcement immediately places her as a serious contender to become the eighth secretary general in the UN’s 70-year history. Her reputation as a fighter who survived nine years as premier amid the rough-and-tumble of New Zealand politics is being seen within senior levels of the UN as evidence that she would be able to withstand the pressures of the famously thankless task of leading the world body.
As the head of the UN development program (UNDP), which she has led for the past seven years, she has proven herself to be a tough administrator who has cut budgets in her area. That may earn her valuable support from the US, which begrudgingly pays the lion’s share of the UN’s running costs.