Africa Is a Country

He must be American

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

He must be American

By
Caitlin L Chandler

A true competitive selection process may have turn up the best possible candidate as head of UNICEF and not power politics.

Barack Obama, US President, and Nicholas Sarkozy, French President, in 2009 (Image by Pete Souza for US White House, CC Licensed).

The Obama administration announced last week its nomination of Anthony Lake to serve as the new head of UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund). Current Executive Director Ann Veneman, a Bush appointee, announced she would not seek a second term in an e-mail to all UNICEF staff in late December 2009. Publicly, Veneman declined to give a reason for her departure.

The bulk of 70-year-old Anthony Lake’s experience is as a national security advisor for the Clinton Administration. While Lake has laudably served on the boards of several child right’s organizations, including Save the Children and the US Fund for UNICEF, his expertise is in advancing the interests of the U.S. government.

For years, insiders at UNICEF and in the international community have fumed at the progression of Americans running the agency.  They have every right to be upset.  The U.S. traditionally gets to pick the head of UNICEF simply because they are the largest donor to the agency. While all countries are currently allowed to “nominate” candidates, it’s a dog and pony show that always comes out in favor of the American nomination.

Wouldn’t a true competitive selection process turn up the best possible candidate? Other UN agencies have created more transparent processes for selecting their Executive Directors, such as UNAIDS. Ban Ki-Moon and the UNICEF Board should take this opportunity to end the unspoken rule that the U.S. controls UNICEF’s direction. After all, the children and young people UNICEF serve deserve the best possible Executive Director around – not one whose greatest qualification is he’s American.

Further Reading

After the uprising

Years into Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict, the rebellion faces internal fractures, waning support, and military pressure—raising the question of what future, if any, lies ahead for Ambazonian aspirations.

In search of Saadia

Who was Saadia, and why has she been forgotten? A search for one woman’s story opens up bigger questions about race, migration, belonging, and the gaps history leaves behind.

Binti, revisited

More than two decades after its release, Lady Jaydee’s debut album still resonates—offering a window into Tanzanian pop, gender politics, and the sound of a generation coming into its own.

The bones beneath our feet

A powerful new documentary follows Evelyn Wanjugu Kimathi’s personal and political journey to recover her father’s remains—and to reckon with Kenya’s unfinished struggle for land, justice, and historical memory.

What comes after liberation?

In this wide-ranging conversation, the freedom fighter and former Constitutional Court justice Albie Sachs reflects on law, liberation, and the unfinished work of building a just South Africa.

The cost of care

In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?

The memory keepers

A new documentary follows two women’s mission to decolonize Nairobi’s libraries, revealing how good intentions collide with bureaucracy, donor politics, and the ghosts of colonialism.

Making films against amnesia

The director of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ reflects on imperial violence, corporate warfare, and how cinema can disrupt the official record—and help us remember differently.