Cindy McCain to step down from World Food Program

Cindy McCain said Thursday that she will step down as the head of the UN World Food Program in three months to focus on her health. McCain said in a statement that she wished she could finish out the remaining two years of her five-year tenure at the organization’s headquarters in Rome. However, the 71-year-old American said she suffered a mild stroke in October last year that kept her away from her duties until this January. The enormous demands of leading the world’s largest humanitarian organization outpaced her recovery, McCain said.

What else is McCain known for? The widow of the late Republican Sen. John McCain, she previously served as U.S. ambassador to the UN agencies for food and agriculture under former President Joe Biden. John McCain, noted for his personal story as a naval aviator and prisoner of war in Vietnam, established himself as a maverick moderate in the Senate. He won the GOP nomination for president before losing to Barack Obama in 2008. John and Cindy were married for 38 years before he died in 2018.

What did McCain’s work at the World Food Program focus on? She overhauled the organization’s structure, streamlined its operations, grew its digital technologies, and diversified partnerships, according to the World Food Program. It delivered life-saving assistance to millions of vulnerable people under McCain’s leadership, starting in 2023, she said. In recent years, the organization has focused on addressing the humanitarian needs caused by the Russia-Ukraine war, and Israel’s military offensive inside the Gaza Strip.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on a Houthi rebel raid at a World Food Program’s office.