EXPLAINER: What are U.N. special envoys?

U.N. emergencies co-ordinator Jan Egeland has asked for a U.N. special envoy for Uganda to help end a brutal 20-year war there. There are U.N. envoys for Myanmar, tsunami recovery, AIDS in Africa and a host of other issues, but what do they actually do?

The most famous special envoy at the moment is former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is overseeing recovery in the dozen countries hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Clinton has said he was chosen for the job by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan because "he thought I could guilt-peddle my former colleagues better than anyone else he could think of".

His job has been to keep pressure on donor countries to honour their pledges of help as the tsunami fades from the front pages and to account for how their aid dollars are spent.

When Clinton addressed a recent international conference on early warning systems to help prevent disasters, he acknowledged that a key part of his role was to keep the tsunami in the media spotlight.

&${esc.hash}39;I am well aware that in conferences like this, the usual practice is to ask the politicians who know nothing to address the experts who already know everything, so that the cameras will cover your meeting and hopefully the recommendations which will come out of it,&${esc.hash}39; he said.

And if you&${esc.hash}39;re thinking his wages might be better spent on building houses in the tsunami region, think again. His job attracts the princely salary of just ${esc.dollar}1-a-year.

Most special envoys are a lot lower profile but they are still key players in their particular fields. Each has a personal mandate from the U.N. secretary-general, and their duties include raising global awareness of crises, acting as peace brokers and intermediaries or simply knocking heads together to get things done.

Here&${esc.hash}39;s a list of special envoys. For full details of appointees, see the United Nations&${esc.hash}39; website.

Countries with special envoys: Africa Americas Europe

Africa region

Latin American region

Cyprus

Burundi

Guyana-Venezuela

Former Yugoslavia

CAR

Haiti

Georgia

Ivory Coast

Kosovo

Congo (DR)

Asia/Pacific

Ethiopia/Eritrea

Afghanistan

Middle East

Great Lakes

Cambodia

Horn of Africa

Myanmar

Middle East region

Liberia

Kashmir quake

Israeli-occupied territories

Sierra Leone

Tajikistan

Iraq

Somalia

Timor-Leste

Iraq/Kuwait

Sudan

Lebanon

West Africa

Western Sahara

Other special envoys:

Alliance of civilizations

Bird flu

Children and conflict

Women

HIV/AIDS in Africa

HIV/AIDS in Asia

HIV/AIDS in Caribbean

HIV/AIDS in E. Europe

Human Rights

Internally displaced people

Least developed countries

Migration

Millennium Development Goals

Genocide prevention

Tsunami recovery

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