How to apply for the top UN job

Eight candidates vying for the chance to succeed Ban Ki Moon - who is stepping down as Secretary General of the United Nations at the end of the year - will present their ideas to the world today. But since the Five Permanent members retain their power to veto, what use is this change from a system of selection which usually happens behind closed doors?

Richard Gowan is an Associate Director at the Centre on International Cooperation in New York, and is a keen UN watcher.

(Pic: The candidates for the upcoming UN secretary-general election (from top left) Unesco Director General Irina Bokova, United Nations Development Programme head Helen Clark, Moldova's Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman, Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic, former Portuguese prime minister and former UN high commissioner for refugees Antonio Guterres, Macedonia's former foreign minister Srgjan Kerim, Slovenian former president Danilo Turk and Dr Igor Lukšić from Montenegro, not pictured (Credit: AFP)