UN top job candidates make their pitch as world looks on

IT has been billed as the world’s toughest job interview, and as candidates filed into the New York meeting room yesterday, little sign of the revolution taking place pervaded the atmosphere.

One by one, the first three of the eight contenders set out their vision for the organisation’s future – speaking of leadership, accountability, budgets and management.

But this being the United Nations, there were 193 countries weighing their answers. And the world was watching via webcast in order to submit questions as, for the first time in the UN’s 70-year history, candidates for secretary-general were asked to pitch for the job.

“We are sailing into uncharted waters here,” said Mogens Lykketoft, the Danish politician who currently presides over the UN General Assembly. He is in charge of shepherding the process of finding a successor to Ban Ki-moon, who steps down after two five-year terms on Jan 1.

Calling the process a “potential game-changing exercise”, Mr Lykketoft said the informal briefings were part of a “very transparent, very interesting discussion about the future of the United Nations”.

Candidates – Montenegro’s Igor Luksic, Bulgaria’s Irina Bokova and Portugal’s Antonio Guterres – were asked for their views on handling the migrant crisis, Israel-Palestine talks, and UN management.

Bookmakers installed Helen Clark, the 66-year-old former prime minister of New Zealand, as favourite. Furthermore, the UK and US in particular have been vociferous in calling for a women to take the reins, for the first time in the UN’s history.

Matthew Rycroft, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, told The Daily Telegraph that the UK would like to see a woman at the head of the organisation.

“This is a job to lead the United Nations, but also represent the interests of seven billion people,” he said. “So we want as many qualified candidates, especially women, to apply..”

Ms Bokova, the Bulgarian director of Unesco, Vesna Pusic, Croatia’s former foreign minister, and Moldova’s former foreign minister Natalia Gherman have also been strongly tipped to be awarded the role.