Mark Lowcock

Lowcock joined the then Overseas Development Administration in 1985. He was the Private Secretary to Minister for Overseas Development Baroness Chalker of Wallasey from 1992 to 1994, the Deputy Head and Head of the Department for International Development Regional Office for Central Africa from 1994 to 1997, the Head of European Union Department from 1997 to 1999, the Head of the Regional Office for East Africa, the Director of Finance and Corporate Performance from 2001 to 2003, the Director General of Corporate Performance and Knowledge Sharing from 2003 to 2006, the Director General of Policy and International from 2006 to 2008, the Director General of Country Programmes from 2008 to 2011.[5]

Lowcock was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Development on 9 June 2011.[6]

He has made speeches on development, in Delhi (on the future of international development), Karachi (on how to get economic growth in a changing world), Berlin (on development agencies and conflict) and Addis Ababa (on economic development in Ethiopia).[7] As of 2015, Lowcock was paid a salary of between £160,000 and £164,999 by the department, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.[8]

Lowcock oversaw the Department during the period in which the UK increased its aid budget to 0.7% of Gross Domestic Product.[9] World leaders first pledged to meet the 0.7% target 35 years ago in a 1970 General Assembly Resolution.[10]

USAID Administrator Mark Andrew Green meeting Lowcock in 2019

As the Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator (USG/ERC) he is responsible for the oversight of all emergencies requiring United Nations humanitarian assistance. He also acts as the central focal point for governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental relief activities. The ERC also leads the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), a unique inter-agency forum for coordination, policy development and decision-making involving the key United Nations and non-United Nations humanitarian partners. In a country affected by a disaster or conflict, the ERC may appoint a Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) to ensure response efforts are well organized. The HC works with government, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and affected communities[11]

Since 2019, Lowcock has been a member of the World Economic Forum High-Level Group on Humanitarian Investing, co-chaired by Børge Brende, Kristalina Georgieva and Peter Maurer.[12]

In his role as the UN’s humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock coordinates the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP). The GHRP is the international community’s primary fundraising vehicle to respond to the humanitarian impacts of the virus in low- and middle-income countries and support their efforts to fight it. It aggregates relevant COVID-19 appeals from across the UN System, includes inputs from NGOs and NGO consortiums, and reflects local organizations’ role in the response. The GHRP complements other plans such as those developed by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the Global Fund’s programme to safeguard work to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and the Vaccine Alliance’s (Gavi) work to keep future generations free from measles.

Nearly 250 million acutely vulnerable people across 63 countries are covered by the updated GHRP with needs totaling $10.3 billion. Activity funded by the GHRP includes the delivery of laboratory equipment to test for the virus, and treat those infected, the installation of handwashing stations in camps and settlements, public health information campaigns on how to prevent community transmission, the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) for front-line medical workers, training for support services around sexual violence and intimate partner violence, the delivery of food and nutrition programmes, and the creation of airbridges across Africa, Asia and Latin America for the movement of humanitarian workers and supplies.