- published: 09 Jun 2007
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Johannes Pieter "Jan" Pronk (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjɑn ˈprɔnk]; born 16 March 1940) is a Dutch politician, diplomat, and professor. He has been visiting professor at the United Nations University for Peace in Ciudad Colón, Costa Rica, since 2009.
Pronk was a member of the Labour Party (PvdA) from 1965 to 2013, serving three terms as Minister for Development Cooperation and one as Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment in government cabinets between 1973 and 2002. He was the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of Mission for the United Nations Mission in Sudan from 2004 until 2006.
Jan Pronk was born in Scheveningen in the Netherlands on March 16, 1940. He is the son of Johannes Pronk (1909–2005) and Elisabeth Hendrika van Geel, who were both school teachers at the Protestant elementary school Koningin Emmaschool in Scheveningen. Jan Pronk attended the Koningin Emmaschool for three years. He attended the Protestant secondary school Zandvliet Lyceum in the Hague, where he graduated the gymnasium in 1958 with a curriculum that focused on exact sciences.