Ertharin Cousin
NEW YORK — Ertharin Cousin, an American who is executive director of the United Nations World Food Program, said here today that she will be available for reappointment when her five-year term ends in April 2017.

Cousin was nominated for the position by President Barack Obama and appointed by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in 2012 after serving as Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations food agencies in Rome.

Founded in 1961, WFP’s traditional role has been to distribute agricultural surpluses in places torn apart by war and natural disasters, but in recent years, particularly under Cousin’s leadership, it has also begun to play a role in efforts to make developing countries more agriculturally productive.

Asked at a news conference connected to the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit about her plans, Cousin noted that the process of reappointment is complicated because countries nominate candidates and the U.N. secretary general makes the appointment.

She also noted that the timing is complicated because the United States will hold a presidential election in 2016, and about the same time, the United Nations member states will be choosing a new secretary general.

But she noted she is eligible for a second term and said she is “hopeful that whoever is in the White House would see the work that I have performed is beneficial and that I would be renominated for a second term.”

While acknowledging that there would be a new secretary general, she added, “I am pleased that I have support from across the entire global community.”

When asked directly about her interest in a second term, she joked, “I am not not a candidate.”

Asked if she liked living in Rome, Cousin said, “If I am honored enough to serve a second term, that means I will have spent 13 years in Rome.”

Cousin, a Chicagoan, had known Obama for years before he won election as president. But she also served in the Clinton administration as White House liaison to the State Department, and received a White House appointment to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development.

After returning to Chicago, she was executive vice president and chief operating officer of Feeding America (then known as America’s Second Harvest) and worked in communications and government affairs for the grocery chains, Albertson’s and Jewell Foods.

An Obama administration official recently told The Hagstrom Report that it would be good if Cousin would be available for a second term in order to secure continuity of leadership.

The official noted that WFP has not had a two-term executive director since Catherine Bertini, also an American, served in that post from 1992 to 2002. Bertini was nominated by President George H.W. Bush and renominated by Clinton.

After Bertini left, President George W. Bush nominated James Morris, a former Indianapolis city government official with close ties to former Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.

Morris served in the position from 2002 to 2007 but he chose not to be a candidate for reappointment.

Morris was succeeded by Josette Sheeran, a former State Department official who served from 2007 to 2012.

Sheeran wanted a second term, but she had been highly active in Republican politics and an editor of The Washington Times.

With Cousin waiting in the wings, Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the nomination and Ban Ki Moon appointed her.

Sheeran attempted to gain support from other countries in what became a semi-public nasty diplomatic battle, but eventually gave up. She is now president of the New York-based Asia Society.

Before 1992, the position had always been held by people from other countries.