United Nations

SG/A/874
                                                                                                                        BIO/3572
                                                                                                                        27 May 2004

Biographical Note

Carolyn McAskie Appointed Special Representative of Secretary-General for Burundi

NEW YORK, 26 May (UN Headquarters) -- The Secretary-General has decided to appoint Carolyn McAskie as his Special Representative for Burundi effective 1 June 2004. Ms. McAskie has led a distinguished career, having joined the United Nations as Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and Deputy to the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in October 1999, after 32 years of service with the Government of Canada.  She also served as Emergency Relief Coordinator, a.i. from November 1999 to January 2001. Ms. McAskie currently holds the rank of Assistant Secretary-General, and has been serving concurrently as the Secretary-General’s Humanitarian Envoy for the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire since January 2003, while retaining her duties as deputy head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the United Nations Secretariat. 

Prior to her appointment with the United Nations, Ms. McAskie spent most of her Canadian Government career with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) ending as an Assistant Deputy Minister.  Her last positions were Vice President of CIDA’s Multilateral Programmes Branch from 1996 to 1999, and Vice-President of the Africa and Middle East Branch, 1993-1996.  Previous posts include Director-General, International Financial Institutions, and Director-General, Multilateral Technical Cooperation (United Nations and Commonwealth Programmes).  Ms. McAskie served as Canadian Ambassador in Sri Lanka from 1986-1989 and in the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, 1975-1980.

Throughout her career, Ms. McAskie has played a prominent role in development, financial and political negotiations in the international financial institutions, United Nations governing councils and in other multilateral negotiations, including the African Development Bank, where she spearheaded the last capital increase in 1999, and the replenishments of the Asian Development Bank/Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Global Environmental Facility. Over the 1980s and 1990s, Ms. McAskie served in the Governing Councils of the United Nations Funds and Programmes. 

Ms. McAskie has also previously assisted in the Burundi peace process in her capacity as a member of the Burundi Peace Process under the late Julius Nyerere, the former President of the Republic of Tanzania. 

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