New UNDP Chief Says: 'Possibilities and Priorities Mismatched'.

• Position: Brief Article - Interview

The new Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) began his four-year term on 1 July with a promise to reinvent the way the organization does business.

Mr. Mark Malloch Brown, a former Vice-President of External Affairs for the World Bank, nominated for the post by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and confirmed by the United Nations General Assembly, succeeds James Gustave Speth, who held the position for six years. In 1997, he chaired a Task Force set up by Mr. Annan to review the Organization's media and public information dissemination policies.

Speaking of the priorities he sees in his new responsibilities, the Administrator said that for UNDP to accomplish its mission, it must reach out for new forms of cooperation. He called for stronger partnerships with programme country governments, civil society and nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, the Bretton Woods institutions and regional development banks. He also called for stronger partnerships within the United Nations system itself.

Mr. Malloch Brown warned of an accelerating decline in UNDP's resource base, noting that two donors had recently indicated major cuts in contributions - one to finance relief in Kosovo, the other to conform to the Maastricht balanced budget in Europe.

Asserting that this was a moment of truth for UNDP and its Executive Board, he said that the organization would "attack its business strategy for...