Guterres announces Amina Mohammed as UN Deputy Secretary-General
The New UN Secretary-General, António
Guterres, on Thursday announced Nigeria’s Environment minister, Amina
Mohammed, as his Deputy Secretary-General.
Guterres made the announcement through the spokesman of the Secretary-General, Mr. Stephane Dujarric.
Guterres also announced the duo of Ms.
Maria Viotti of Brazil and Ms. Kyung-wha Kang of the Republic of Korea
into high-profile positions at the UN.
He said, “I am pleased to announce that I
will be appointing Ms. Amina J. Mohammed of Nigeria as my Deputy
Secretary-General, and Ms. Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti of Brazil as my
Chef De Cabinet.
“I also intend to create the position of
Special Advisor on Policy, and to appoint Ms. Kyung-wha Kang of the
Republic of Korea to this new role.
“I am happy to count on the efforts of
these three highly competent women, whom I have chosen for their strong
backgrounds in global affairs, development, diplomacy, human rights and
humanitarian action.
“These appointments are the foundations
of my team, which I will continue to build, respecting my pledges on
gender parity and geographical diversity.”
Mohammed, the current Nigeria’s Minister
of Environment, served as UN Under-Secretary-General and Special
Adviser to outgoing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Post-2015
Development Planning.
She was instrumental in bringing about the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development Goals.
Before joining the UN, Mohammed worked
for three successive administrations in Nigeria, serving as Special
Adviser on the Millennium Development Goals.
She provided advice on issues including
poverty, public sector reform and sustainable development, and
coordinating poverty reduction interventions.
She is also an Adjunct Professor in
Development Practice at Columbia University, and serves on numerous
international advisory boards and panels, including the UN
Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Post-2015 Development Agenda.
Others include the Independent Expert
Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development, and
the Global Development Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
She is also the UN Secretary-General’s
Global Sustainability Panel, the African Women’s Millennium Initiative,
Girl Effect and the ActionAid International Right to Education Project.
Born in 1961, and educated in Nigeria and the UK, Mohammed is married and has six children.
Guterres had hinted on Monday after he took the oath of office that gender parity would be top of his agenda as the UN scribe.
He said, “I think that one very
important element of the agenda would be to give a clear signal that
gender parity is a must and so in the appointments I will be making.
“And the first ones would be announced
soon. You’ll see that gender parity will become a clear priority from
top to bottom in the UN and it will have to be respected by all.”
“This is a very ambitious agenda, an
agenda that must be for both woman and man, and that is why parity is so
important in our reform perspectives.
“That is also why the empowerment of women is so important in everything the UN will be doing around the world.”
Guterres, succeeds outgoing
secretary-general Ban, who bows out on Dec. 31, 2016 after a decade of
two terms, while the new secretary-general assumes office on Jan. 1,
2017, for the next five years.
NAN
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