Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark is living in the fast lane in her role as United Nations' development programme administrator. David Bruce reports.
The former New Zealand prime minister is now the third-highest ranked United Nations official in her role as administrator of its development programme.
And she is a living example of what she told about 450 senior secondary school pupils in Oamaru yesterday: "The world is your oyster, if you are prepared to put the effort and commitment in."
In an interview with the Otago Daily Times yesterday, she said about half her time was spent in New York at the United Nations headquarters. The rest of the time she was jetting around the world, visiting heads of state and on-the-ground development staff, working, at times, in hot zones.
Visits had been cancelled almost as she was due to board an aircraft when the country she was heading for was suddenly embroiled in conflict.
Since she took up her job in April 2009, her home had been mid-New York, a city she loved.
She lived in an apartment "only a three-minute walk into the [UN] secretary-general's office".
The cultural - "amazing museums and galleries" - and historic attractions of the city suited her interests, although she admitted she did not have as much time as she would like to enjoy them.
"It's a simple drive or train ride out of the city and you have immense open and forested areas."
Despite her hectic schedule, Miss Clark continued to make time to keep fit at a gym in her apartment building. The area where she lived was heavily policed 24 hours a day and so she had no qualms walking home late at night after work.
"The New York Police Department pays our area an enormous amount of attention."
Her enthusiasm for her work had not been diminished by the pressure of the hectic lifestyle.
Her passion for the environment and democracy through to health and improving the role of girls and women in developing countries had been rekindled through her work.
Her job was a leadership role, dealing with countries and territories at the highest level where her reputation as a former prime minister was welcomed by countries seeking advice.
She would not be drawn on whether she would seek another four-year term: "How long is a piece of string? I enjoy it, and time will tell." The job had proved to be what she expected.
"I knew more about the sort of political and security side than I did about the development side. But I had had involvement with development in New Zealand as the PM," she said.
Miss Clark, who was in New Zealand on a private holiday to see family, visited Oamaru to assist Project Hearts and Hands for Haiti fundraising.
Helen Clark
NZ prime minister: 1999-2008.
Age: 61.
Born: Te Pahu, Waikato.
Educated: Epsom Girls' Grammar, Auckland University.
Lives: New York.
Job: UN development programme administrator.
Appointed: April 2009 for four years.
Oversees: Department's $US5 billion ($NZ6 billion) annual budget.
