 UN Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan has appointed Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka of Tanzania, Director-General of the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON). Mrs. Tibaijuka, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, is the highest ranking African woman in the United Nations system.
In June 2005, she was appointed United Nations Special Envoy to study the scope of the Zimbabwean Government's evictions of informal traders and people deemed to be squatting illegally. The year before, British Prime Minister Tony Blair had invited Mrs. 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. As Director-General of the only UN headquarters in a developing country, Mrs. Tibaijuka will be the senior-most United Nations official in Nairobi and reports directly to the UN Secretary-General. As the Secretary-General’s official representative, the Director-General serves as a direct link between the UN, the Kenya Government and the extensive diplomatic community in Nairobi, and as the host of a wide variety of diplomatic gatherings and peace building initiatives that take place in the capital. See also: her biography |
