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UNDP deeply appreciates the leadership and performance of Eveline Herfkens as the Executive Co-coordinator of the United Nations Millennium Campaign. She has built a worldwide campaign to help eradicate poverty that has touched millions of people. As a result of UN Millennium Campaign activities, under her leadership the Millennium Campaign was able to mobilize contributions specifically for campaigning purposes from a large number of donor governments.

The recent article in Vrij Nederland is inaccurate. It misconstrues facts and the documents it cites are in some cases part of the kind of internal deliberative process that all organizations undergo when considering contracts.  These documents do not reflect the final position of UNDP management, nor the final outcome regarding Ms. Herfkens’s contract.

UNDP is not aware of ANY rules Ms. Herfkens has knowingly broken to further her own interests. (Subsequent to issuing this statement, the UNDP Spokesperson became aware of the details of the housing subsidy received by Ms. Herfkens. UNDP is looking into this issue, including whether receipt of the subsidy violated the applicable UNDP staff rules, and whether Ms. Herfkens was aware of the rules. UNDP is also looking into Ms. Herfkens’s U.S. green card application, the applicable rules, and whether she was aware of them.)

The moment she found out that her application for permanent residency in the U.S. was inconsistent with the terms of her contract, she immediately informed the appropriate UNDP officials and resigned from that contract. The allegation that this caused a ‘labor conflict’ or performance issue, is simply not correct.  All concerned wanted to find a way to have her continue with her responsibilities to the Campaign. As such, and after a lengthy process to ensure that all relevant rules and procedures would be followed, it was agreed that Ms. Herfkens would be given a standard SSA contract, with no special provisions i.e. no business class travel or any other special privileges.  Ms. Herfkens has abided by this contract.

Again, the suggestion that somehow Ms. Herfkens knowingly bent UN rules for personal gain is simply not correct.  On the contrary, since January 2006 she was paid for a part time contract although she de facto continued to work fulltime. In the course of 2007, and until her SSA contract was approved, she actually continued to work in her position without pay pending the approval of her contract.

Since January 2006 she has been working from home as the day-to-day responsibilities for managing the Campaign from the outset were done by the Director of the Campaign. Moreover, the bulk of her responsibilities involved political guidance to the National Campaigns including writing articles and Campaign material as well as participation in international meetings resulting in her traveling almost five months per year. The five trips abroad in 2007 cited by the article lasted on average a month each.

The reference to an internal UNDP memo which allegedly suggests that somebody else be found to lead the campaign is misconstrued. The memo solely suggested an SSA contract may be incompatible with a managerial position (i.e. is not a staff contract and therefore does not allow for financial approval authority, supervisory responsibility, etc). The leadership of UNDP at no stage suggested or supported the idea that Ms. Herfkens should not continue in her crucial role with the Campaign.

David Morrison did not at any stage say that Ms. Herfkens is without a contract at home in Maryland. In fact, what David Morrison made clear was that Ms. Herfkens had continued to work from home even while awaiting the approval of her SSA contract.  

The article is also inaccurate in its representation of the decision to move the Millennium Campaign to another department within the UN.  In fact this decision was made for practical reasons. At the inception of the Campaign, it was decided that UNDP would ‘host’ the Campaign, and this remains the case today.  Due to a natural internal evolution within UNDP over the past several years, it made sense to shift the Millennium Campaign from one bureau within UNDP to a sister bureau.  The decision to make this internal bureaucratic change had nothing at all to do with Ms. Herfkens position or contract.