Cindy McCain tapped as head of World Food Program

The media outlet Devex first reported McCain was set to be tapped for the role.

While McCain has participated in decades of humanitarian work, her appointment last year as U.S. ambassador to three U.N. food and agriculture agencies marked her first formal role in food policy. In that post, which is based in Rome, she has been part of a small cadre of U.S. diplomats working to limit the damage from Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has sent global food prices sky-rocketing and threatened to destabilize dozens of fragile countries already on the brink of widespread hunger. McCain described her initial months in the job as “a baptism by fire,” in an interview with POLITICO last year.

McCain said in an interview with POLITICO last month that she saw “room for improvement from the Middle East” in contributing to global food aid amid the fast-moving crisis. Asked about China’s role in global food security and U.S. criticism of Beijing for not doing more, McCain urged the Chinese government to be engaged. But she added, “There’s always strings attached with China.”

McCain will replace David Beasley, the World Food Program’s current executive director and the former Republican governor of South Carolina. People close to Beasley say he would likely consider pursuing a Senate bid in his home state, should Sen. Tim Scott (R) run for president in 2024 or Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) retire in the next few years.

McCain met Wednesday with Beasley and top United Nations food program officials, including Qu Dongyu, the director general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

A person close to McCain had described the prospect of leading the World Food Program as a “role of a lifetime” for her.