Anna Tibaijuka

Dr. Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). She is the highest ranking African woman in the UN System.

Early Life and Education

Born in Tanzania, Tibaijuka studied Agricultural Economics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala and is fluent in English, Swahili, Swedish and French. She is the widow of the former Tanzanian ambassador Wilson Tibaijuka who died in 2000.

Academic career

From 1993 to 1998 Tibaijuka was Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Dar es Salaam. During this period she was also a member of the Tanzanian Government delegation to several United Nations Summits including the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Istanbul, 1996); the World Food Summit (Rome 1996); the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing 1995) and the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995). At the World Food Summit in Rome, she was elected Coordinator for Eastern Africa in the Network for Food Security, Trade and Sustainable Development (COASAD). Mrs. Tibaijuka has also been a Board Member of UNESCO's International Scientific Advisory Board since November 1997.

United Nations career

pecial Co-ordinator

In 1998 Tibaijuka was appointed Special Coordinator for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked and Small Island Developing Countries at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), having responsibility for strengthening the capacity of LDCs in trade negotiations with the World Trade Organization.

Executive Director of UN-HABITAT

In September 2000 she was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan as Executive Director of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements. During her first two years in office, Mrs. Tibaijuka oversaw major reforms which resulted in the United Nations General Assembly upgrading the Centre to programme status and renaming it the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). Tibaijuka was elected by the General Assembly to her first four-year term as head of the new agency in July 2002 and was given the rank of Under-Secretary-General, the first -- and only -- African woman to reach this level within the UN System.

pecial Envoy of the Secretary General

In June 2005, the Secretary General appointed Tibaijuka as his Special Envoy to study the impact of the Zimbabwean Government's campaign (known as Operation Murambatsvina) to evict informal traders and people deemed to be squatting illegally in certain areas. As the evictions were concentrated on areas which had traditionally strongly supported the oppositional Movement for Democratic Change, many commentators believed the campaign was politically motivated. Although this was denied by the Zimbabwean Government, there was strong international criticism.

Tibaijuka concluded her report saying that “while purporting to target illegal dwellings and structures and to clamp down on alleged illicit activities, [the operation] was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering”. [http://www.unhabitat.org/documents/ZimbabweReport.pdf]

Blair Commission / Commission on Africa

In 2004 the British Prime Minister Tony Blair invited Tibaijuka, to be a member of the Commission for Africa, which he established to generate ideas and action to accelerate and sustain Africa's growth and development. The Commission, comprising 16 internationally known figures, completed its report in March 2005.

External links

* [http://www.unhabitat.org/director/ed_biography.asp Official UN Biography]
* [http://www.unhabitat.org/documents/ZimbabweReport.pdf Report of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Operation Murambatsvina]