UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Sigrid Kaag, outgoing Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands, as the UN's Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza.
Ms. Kaag is scheduled to take up her post after retiring from Dutch politics on 8 January, according to the Dutch Government Information Service.
She said she considered it “an honour” that UN Secretary-General António Guterres has asked her to take on the role, and that she aimed to contribute towards a “better future” in Gaza.
Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte wished Kaag success in her “crucial and demanding task.” He expressed confidence in her ability to fulfil the role “better than anyone else” and thanked her for their “close bond” and good collaboration.
Speculation about Ms. Kaag potentially working with the UN had been circulating for a while. Over the past weekend, RTL News reported, citing anonymous sources, that she was being considered for the position.
A UN spokesperson indicated that she would facilitate, coordinate, monitor and verify the dispatch of humanitarian aid destined for Gaza.
Ms. Kaag has held a wide range of senior positions in the United Nations system.
From 2015 to 2017, she was the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, and from 2013 to 2015, she was Special Coordinator of the Joint Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations Mission in Syria.
She served as Assistant Secretary-General with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 2010 to 2013 and as Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Jordan from 2007 to 2010.
Prior to that, Ms. Kaag served in several senior positions with UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Her international experience makes her no doubt suitable for her new important task. She in considered as biased by Israel but will have to cooperate with the Israeli authorities to succeed.
In her previous role as UN special coordinator for Lebanon she did not manage to change the course of the country. Since then, it has become a failed state in deep political and economic crisis. Lebanon has not implemented UN Security Council resolutions 1701 after the war in 2006 calling for Hezbollah to withdraw from the southern part of the country and replace it by the Lebanese army.
