Just A Few Things To Know About Nigeria’s Amina Mohammed, The UN’s Most Powerful Woman

Amina Mohammed was recently appointment to one of the most powerful positions in the United Nations as incoming United Nations Secretary-general Antonio Guterres? deputy secretary-general. The former Nigerian minister of environment assumed her new role on January 1, 2017, bringing with her a wealth of knowledge on global development. Here are a few things to know about this power woman.

She has a very diverse and illustrious professional background
Mohammed brings more than 30 years of expertise as a development professional in the public and private sectors. Before her most recent role as the Minister of Environment under Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari?s administration, she was appointed in July 2012 by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon as Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning. She has also served as coordinator of the Task Force on Gender and Education for the United Nations Millennium Project; founded and led the Center for Development Policy Solutions; served as an adjunct professor of Columbia University?s Master?s program in Development Practice and worked in the engineering and surveying industry.

She is a mother and family woman
The mother of six was born in Kaduna state in North-western Nigeria to a British mother and a Nigerian father. She recently gave her away her daughter, Samira Ibrahim, in marriage.

She is a strong advocate of climate change and environmental health
She is passionate about environmental health and sustainability and has led several climate change related initiatives. Under president Buhari?s mandate, she led the campaign to launch the clean up of Nigeria?s oil-producing Ogoniland in Rivers state, a region whose environment and communities have been degraded due to large scale oil exploration.

She was featured in Vogue magazine for her work
Mohammed was among one of the 13 women fighting climate change who posed for Vogue magazine at the UNFCCC?s 21st annual Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris.

Image credit: YouTube/World Bank

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