(Updates to add confirmation and quotes from UN OCHA spokeswoman)
LONDON (AlertNet) - John Holmes, the United Nations' top humanitarian official, plans to step down later this year, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Holmes, a British national whose official title is Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, plans to take over as director of Britain's Ditchley Foundation in September, the spokeswoman said.
The Foundation organises conferences that cover international affairs.
"He (Holmes) had told the Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) some time ago that he had been offered the post of the director of the Ditchley Foundation, and that he would be taking it up as of Sept. 1," Stephanie Bunker, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told AlertNet.
"When he leaves he will have done it for three-and-a-half years which is a long time for this kind of job, as gruelling as it is."
She added that the usual tenure for Holmes' job was two to three years.
'LEARNING ON THE JOB'
Holmes was appointed as the U.N. aid chief on March 1 2007, succeeding Jan Egeland. A career diplomat, he was previously the British ambassador in Paris from October 2001 to February 2007.
The U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator is responsible for oversight of all emergencies requiring U.N. humanitarian assistance, and acts as the focal point for relief activities involving governments, intergovernmental agencies and non-governmental organisations.
The Times, which earlier reported Holmes' plan to leave his post, said his appointment to the U.N. job had "raised eyebrows" because of his "almost total lack of humanitarian experience", adding that he "has been forced to learn on the job".
Earlier this month, Holmes chided aid agencies working in Haiti for poor coordination and resourcing, which he said had weakened confidence in their ability to deliver, according to a leaked email he confirmed to Reuters as genuine.
He called on the agencies to take a more aggressive approach to helping Haiti following the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.
Holmes said his email was addressed to the main U.N. and other agencies working on relief for survivors of the Haiti quake, which may have killed up to 300,000 people and left more than a million more homeless.
(Additional reporting by Katie Nguyen and Megan Rowling)
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