UN Downsizes High-Profile Special Envoy Amid Signs Of Donor Fatigue

Special UN Africa Envoy Downsizes Amid Signs Of Donor Fatigue
(FILES) This file picture taken on October 23, 2012 shows President of the African Union-UN peacekeeping panel Romano Prodi giving a press conference at the foreign office in Berlin. Italy's centre-left said on April 19, 2013 it would back former prime minister Romano Prodi for president in a move likely to spark a fierce battle with the centre-right and dim hopes of an end any time soon to the two-month deadlock on forming a new government. AFP PHOTO / FILES / ODD ANDERSEN (Photo credit should read ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images)
(FILES) This file picture taken on October 23, 2012 shows President of the African Union-UN peacekeeping panel Romano Prodi giving a press conference at the foreign office in Berlin. Italy's centre-left said on April 19, 2013 it would back former prime minister Romano Prodi for president in a move likely to spark a fierce battle with the centre-right and dim hopes of an end any time soon to the two-month deadlock on forming a new government. AFP PHOTO / FILES / ODD ANDERSEN (Photo credit should read ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images)

EXCLUSIVE: As the United Nations begins to gear up for its new session this month, there are signs that austerity is reaching even the highest levels.

Romano Prodi, former president of the European Commission and onetime prime minister of Italy, is being, in effect, downsized as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s part-time special envoy for the vast and turbulent area of sub-Saharan Africa known as the Sahel, one of the world’s poorest regions.

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