Carolyn McAskie of Canada named to top-level peacebuilding support post

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today named Carolyn McAskie of Canada as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, a post closely aligned with the newly created Peacebuilding Commission which will aim to help post-conflict countries avoid sliding back into war.

Ms. McAskie served most recently as the senior UN envoy to Burundi and head of the UN peacekeeping operation there. She served as a member of the Facilitation Team of the Burundi Peace Process in Arusha in 1999 under the late Julius Nyerere, the former President of Tanzania, and as Humanitarian Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the humanitarian crisis in Cote d'Ivoire in 2003.

From 1999 to 2004, she was the UN’s Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, serving on a temporary basis as Emergency Relief Coordinator from 1999 to January 2001.

Prior to joining the UN, Ms. McAskie had a 30-year career with the Federal Government of Canada in the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), holding senior positions with responsibility for Africa and the Middle East, among a number of other appointments.

Early in her career, she served in the Commonwealth Secretariat in London as Assistant Director of Finance and Personnel from 1975 to 1980 and as Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives from 1986 to 1989.

Throughout her career, Carolyn McAskie has played a prominent role in multilateral negotiations as a Canadian delegate to the UN Funds and Programmes and in the Governing Councils of international financial institutions.