Remembering Kofi Annan

UN Photo/Mark Garten Kofi Annan, 8 April 1938 – 18 August 2018

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From 1997 to 2005, Kofi Annan, the late United Nations Secretary-General, championed everything from stronger human rights and peacekeeping operations around the world, to revitalizing the UN itself by insisting on creating a new dynamic deputy chief role, an effective ethics office and the mantra of zero tolerance for sexual exploitation.

Under his stewardship, leaders committed their countries to meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 – the precursor to today’s Sustainable Development Goals, and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on the way.

A UN agenda item since 1960, Timor-Leste became the first new country of the new millennium and the UN handed authority over to the democratically elected government there, ending the need to maintain a mission there.

But there were dark days as well, none more so during his time in office than the terrorist attack on the UN headquarters building in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, 15 years ago last month, that claimed 22 lives and, put an end to the assumption that serving under the UN flag would ensure safety.

But in addition to the many lives he touched throughout the world, former UN chief Kofi Annan had a profound impact on the staff of the Organization he led. Click on the tabs below to read the recollections of two leading UN staffers who worked with him closely, and knew him well.

Fred Eckhard, spokesperson for the late Secretary-General, recalled meeting Kofi Annan for the first time, long before his rise through the ranks to head the Organization.

With Pérez de Cuéllar at the helm and then-US President Ronald Reagan leading a strong conservative majority in Congress, intent on reducing contributions to the UN, Mr. Eckhard, himself an American, was hired by the UN Information Department. He was called in to brief the Budget Director, meeting Mr. Annan for the first time.

Later, during “an explosion of peacekeeping” missions, Mr. Eckhard became the Spokesman for Namibia, and then for Yugoslavia. “Now I’ve got the new Director of Peacekeeping looking over my shoulder, and that’s Kofi Annan”, he said at that time.

Back at Headquarters, after serving both those missions, journalists asked that Mr. Eckhard give the daily peacekeeping briefings, citing his “firsthand experience.”

With Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in charge, Mr. Eckhard became embedded in Kofi Annan’s department, which led to open access and a “very positive relationship.”

“Boutros then began to see Kofi as a threat, and I was ordered to stop briefing on Peacekeeping,” the former Spokesperson said, so Mr. Annan hired him in the Peacekeeping Department as the Liaison with Troop-Contributing Countries.

After a year, Mr. Boutros-Ghali offered him a promotion if he agreed to stay in the Spokesman’s Office.

“So, I saw Boutros on one hand, I saw Kofi on the other, and I said, ‘I’m going with this guy,’” indicating Mr. Annan.

If Boutros been reelected, Mr. Eckhard said his UN career would have been finished.

“But, as it turned out, no one expected it, Kofi was elected, and he made me his Spokesman,” Mr. Eckhard stated, kicking off a long relationship of trust.

He began briefing Mr. Annan each morning as he entered the building, walking together from the basement, taking the elevator up to the 38th floor, down the corridor and into his office, discussing the morning news reports and the day’s issues.

“And, believe it or not, in eight and half years, he never once told me what to say to the press,” Mr. Eckhard maintained.

And he trusted others as well.

The former spokesperson recalled when Shashi Tharoor, now a politician back home in India, was the UN Communications Director, how he would send cables to the field signing for Kofi Annan, “because Kofi trusted him to make the judgement, and Shashi said he grew so much with this freedom.”

“And I think everyone felt that way who worked for him,” he continued. “Kieran Prendergast, who was his Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, told me that Kofi trusted people before, or until, they prove themselves unworthy of that trust. Which, in the UN, is unusual. It’s usually the other way around.”

Mr. Eckhard felt that his former boss endeared himself to many by the way he did business.

“Other Secretaries-General tended to have this little insider circle of people of their own nationality,” he said. “Kofi had a broad circle of people he consulted, and he picked people whom he got to know, he thought were interesting – thought brought something to the table, as a part of his staff.

And on a more personal note, the former spokesperson said the Mr. Annan was “secure, confident, serene, comfortable in his skin,” and when he talked “he didn’t just talk to you about work. He always asked about your spouse, about your kids, and very often remembered their names”.

“He was fun to work for as well as inspiring,” Mr. Eckhard concluded.