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The chief executive of the United Nations World Food Program, who won the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago, has said he will step down at the end of a six-year term leading the world’s largest humanitarian organization. .
David Beasley, Republican, served one term as South Carolinagovernor from 1995 to 1999. In a statement Saturday, Beasley said he would step down from his role at the end of his term in April 2023.
“Serving in this capacity has been the greatest joy and deepest heartache of my life,” Beasley said. “Thanks to the generosity of governments and individuals, we have fed millions. But the fact that we can’t feed them all — and the tragedy of extremism starvation in a world where the rich still exist.”
Beasley was appointed to UN Posted in 2017 by then-US President Donald Trump, and recommended for the job by Nikki Haley, another former South Carolina governor. Haley also served as the US ambassador to the UN during the Trump administration. Beasley succeeds Ertharin Cousin, an American lawyer and former US ambassador.
The World Food Program has won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for fighting hunger and seeking to end its use as a “weapon of war and conflict” at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is at risk. chance of exacerbating hunger.
In March 2022, Beasley’s term was extended by the Biden administration by one year. In September, he said that when he took on his role in 2017, only 80 million people in the world were dying of starvation. But climate problems, the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine have increased that number to 135 million.
The Rome-based World Food Program was established in 1961 by order of US President Dwight Eisenhower and has aided many crises, including the Ethiopian famine of 1984, the Asian tsunami of 2004 and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Beasley said the process of choosing a successor has begun.
(AP)
