Diplomacy & Public Service
Landmark
Amina J. Mohammed
born 1961
Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Nigeria Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Nigeria's former environment minister, and since 2017 the second-ranking official at the United Nations — after helping to write the Sustainable Development Goals themselves.
Amina Jane Mohammed trained in Britain and spent two decades running an engineering and construction business in Nigeria before moving into public service, where she coordinated the country's programme for spending its debt-relief savings on health, education and water.
Her central contribution came next. As Special Adviser to Ban Ki-moon on post-2015 development planning, she was one of the principal architects of the Sustainable Development Goals — the seventeen targets that replaced the Millennium Development Goals and now organise a very large share of development spending worldwide. Getting a hundred and ninety-three governments to agree that text is the kind of achievement that leaves no monument.
She returned to Nigeria as Minister of Environment in 2015, where she pushed the clean-up of Ogoniland, the reforestation of the shrinking Lake Chad basin, and the country's climate commitments.
In 2017 António Guterres appointed her Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, the second most senior post in the organisation, which she has held since. She chairs the UN Sustainable Development Group and has led on the reform of how the UN works at country level.
Her central contribution came next. As Special Adviser to Ban Ki-moon on post-2015 development planning, she was one of the principal architects of the Sustainable Development Goals — the seventeen targets that replaced the Millennium Development Goals and now organise a very large share of development spending worldwide. Getting a hundred and ninety-three governments to agree that text is the kind of achievement that leaves no monument.
She returned to Nigeria as Minister of Environment in 2015, where she pushed the clean-up of Ogoniland, the reforestation of the shrinking Lake Chad basin, and the country's climate commitments.
In 2017 António Guterres appointed her Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, the second most senior post in the organisation, which she has held since. She chairs the UN Sustainable Development Group and has led on the reform of how the UN works at country level.
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