Foreign
OVER one week after the General Assembly agreed to select Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the new Director-General of the World Trade Organization, WTO, encomium and congratulatory messages have not ceased to pour in from different quarters, both locally and internationally.
Realnews reports that with this appointment, Okonjo-Iweala will not only be the first African to occupy that position since it was created in 1995, but would also be the first woman in the world to occupy the position.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a graduate in Economics from Harvard University and a holder of a
Ph.D. in Regional Economics and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, is a renowned economist and International development expert. She brings to the WTO a wealth of knowledge and experience from serving 25 years with the World Bank, rising to become a managing director, and served two terms as Nigerian finance minister.
According to the United Nations Senior Africa Group, ‘‘Okonjo-Iweala is a thought leader, who has led many global initiatives such as the Global Commission for the Economy and Climate and the Global Vaccine Alliance Board’’
‘‘A highly sought-after leader, who has been a member of numerous global public and private
sector bodies – the Growth Commission, the Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial
Governance established by the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, the board of
Twitter, the B-Team, and Rockefeller Foundation Trustees board to name a few,’’ the group said.
The UN Senior African Group wishes to take this opportunity to warmly congratulate Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala on her well-deserved appointment as Director-General of the World Trade
Organization. ‘‘In this celebratory moment for the world, when the first woman and the first African leads WTO’’.
Recall that about three Swiss-based newspapers; Luzerner Zeitung, Aargauer Zeitung, and St. Galler Tagblatt had called the newly appointed WTO Director-General a ‘‘sixty-six-year-old grandmother’’ from Nigeria. a remark that has been considered to be derogatory.
The United Nations Senior African Group, UNSAG, which is an informal mobilizing forum for Senior United Nations Officials and Ambassadors from Africa. UNSAG provides a convening platform for thought leadership and action and seeks to amplify the voice and agency of Africans to implement strategies addressing, issues of the common concern between the United Nations and Africa has taken great exception to the use of derogatory language by Swiss-based newspapers.
‘‘We find the language used offensive, sexist and racist in a world where both public and private sector leadership is dominated by aging Caucasian men, who are revered for the experience and skills they bring and have never been characterized by their lineage and offspring’’.
‘‘Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is an outstanding professional. She is also proud to be a grandmother. However, her family background is irrelevant to the position she has ascended to. In this case, the derogatory terms have been unsuccessfully used to diminish her stature,’’ it said.
The Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, and the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima, as co-chairs of the United Nations Senior Africans Group have also described the Swiss-based newspaper remark as disrespectful.
“This disrespect is one of many forms of harassment women leaders continue to face. There is no place in the world today for harassment of this kind as well as physical and sexual abuse of women. It must end now,’’ they said.
The UN Senior African Group wishes the new Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, success in her new role, which is critical for global recovery from economic, social and health crises brought on by the coronavirus.
The UNSAG’s message was signed on behalf of the Co-Chairs of the UNSAG and the following UNSAG members:
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS
Kadaria Ahmed, Communications
Zainab Bangura, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi
Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa
and the Sahel and head of UNOWAS
Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director International Trade Centre
Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, Special Coordinator for development in the Sahel
Cristina Duarte, Special Adviser on Africa to United Nations Secretary-General
Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Administrator, Director, UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa
Mbaranga Gasarabwe, Deputy Special Representative MINUSMA
Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA
Joyce Msuya, Deputy Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme
Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa
Pramila Pattern, UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict
Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa
Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification
Alice Wairimu Nderitu, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide
Realnews reports that the Aargauer Zeitung, which also published the same article written by Jan Dirk Herbermann has, however, apologized for the “wrong” use of words.
-March 01 2021 @ 18:50 PM
Tags: United Nations Senior African Group congratulates Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
