Jan Egeland (born 1957) is a Norwegian citizen who is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Egeland was appointed in June 2003 by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and succeeded Kenzo Oshima.
Egeland was previously Secretary-General of the Norwegian Red Cross and from 1998 to 2002 was the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Colombia. From 1990 to 1997, he was the State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is married with two daughters.
At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Egeland was partially responsible for creating the "Norwegian channel" between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel that led to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. He led facilitation of the ceasefire agreement between the government of Guatemala and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca rebels in 1996, and led the Norwegian delegation to the Oslo conference that ratified the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines in 1997. Prior to 1990, his positions included International Department Director for the Norwegian Red Cross, Head of Development Studies at the Henry Dunant Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, and international news reporter for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. He has been Chair of Amnesty International's Norway organization and Vice-Chairman of the International Executive Committee of Amnesty International.
He is currently head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. As part of his responsibilities he travels extensively to evaluate humanitarian disasters, such as in the Darfur region of Sudan and the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency in northern Uganda.
Controversy
On December 27, 2004, during the initial phase of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake relief effort, Egeland said that "Christmastime should remind many Western countries how rich we have become, and if actually the foreign assistance of many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 percent of their gross national income, I think that is stingy, really."
The remark caused a U.S. media firestorm, with drawing vociferous opposition from the U.S. government under George W. Bush. While some took offense to the comment, others supported it; The New York Times wrote that "Egeland was right on target." Egeland's remark spurred the U.S. to increase its disaster aid pledge in an attempt to limit public relations damage (many other nations, such as Australia and Germany, topping the U.S. in giving). Egeland was quoted as saying that the donations were so large and were coming in so fast that "We really have to confirm that we heard right, that the number of zeroes was right." When reviewing the tangible, if non-monetary, assistance of the militaries of the United States, Australia, and other nations in providing disaster relief, Egeland remarked, "Those helicopters are worth their weight in gold now."
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