Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annanis a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. Annan and the United Nations were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world." He is the founder and the Chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as being the chairman of The Elders, a group founded by Nelson Mandela...
NationalityGhanaian
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth8 April 1938
CityKumasi, Ghana
CountryGhana
Simply put, what the United Nations wants is what the U.S. also wants: a reformed United Nations that is effective, efficient, leaner and relevant to the tasks that member states want to set for us, ... The world has changed and we have to change, we have to adapt and I have given my commitment to the president that I will pursue reforms.
I'm confident that next year they will be able to get onto the commission and this situation will be corrected, ... I think they should work towards next year rather than wanting to punish the membership at large.
And I'm not sure that the US is going to insist on that. I think they've made their point, but I'm not sure the other member states would want to see the millennium development goals dropped or, the worse, expunged from the document.
Obviously we didn't get everything we wanted and with 191 member states it's not easy to get an agreement, ... All of us would have wanted more but we can work with what we have been given, and it's a step forward.
I would expect the summit to come up with a program of action not just for the United Nations but also for the members states,
The findings in today's report must be deeply embarrassing to us all, ... The Inquiry Committee has ripped away the curtain, and shone a harsh light into the most unsightly corners of the organization. None of us - member states, Secretariat, agencies, funds and programs - can be proud of what it has found.
If member states are going to get a meaningful outcome, there will need to be more give and take.
The budget agreed upon today will enable the organization to continue its work uninterrupted while member states pursue the reform proposals adopted during the 2005 world summit.
I have been gratified by the clear determination expressed by NATO and its member governments to prevent a further escalation of the fighting, and I encourage all steps that may deter the further use of ethnically driven repression and the resort to violence by either side in Kosovo,
Obviously we didn't get everything we wanted. With 191 member states, it's not easy to get an agreement,
The UNMISET mandate implementation plan establishes milestones that will allow the Security Council to monitor the achievement of the mission's goals,
Guatemala is going through the most promising period of its recent history,
There will be a resolution, and I still hope it will be unanimous or approved by vast majority, ... This week may not be excluded.
I am in touch with several heads of state, ... We need money, police and troops. I hope not only France, but other states, and not only Security Council members, will help us.