Helen Clark: UNDP's Pragmatic Visionary
Original source: Forbes
The Right Honourable Helen Clark is the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand, serving with distinction for three consecutive terms, from 1999-2008. In 2006 Forbes ranked her the 20th most powerful woman in the world. That was two years before Ms. Clark was chosen to lead the UNDP, with a startling array of humanitarian, ecological and innovative projects.
Michael Tobias: UNDP is assisting nations in a remarkable range of biodiversity conservation and management, a cumulative "surface area greater than that of India." I know that environmental protection has been your special calling for many years. With this enormously expanded purview, what are the signs of positive change you are seeing and overseeing at a time when so many people are deeply worried, bewildered and exhausted by so much ecological bad news?