Amina Mohammed emerges DTN woman of the year 2016

The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), and Nigeria’s former Minister of Environment, Mrs. Amina Mohammed, has bagged the Daily Times Nigeria Woman of the year 2016 award.

She has remained an advocate of inclusive developmental process through a planned agenda for people, planet and prosperity to avert environmental degradation, ecological disasters, depletion of natural resources and deprivation which leads to rising insecurity and conflicts.

Amina Mohammed was elected for the esteemed honour as Daily Times Woman of the year, based on her contributions to the development of global and Nigeria’s environmental land scape and environmental sustainability.

She is consolidating in global developmental process with her appointment as Deputy Secretary General of the UN and as a key player in the recent Post-2015 developmental process, serving as the Special Adviser to immediate past UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, on Post-2015 development planning.

In this role, she acted as the link between the Secretary-General, his High Level Panel of Eminent Persons (HLP), and the General Assembly’s Open Working Group (OWG), among other stakeholders.

All though her career, she has distinguished herself as an intellectual per excellence. Prior to this position, Mohammed served as Founder and CEO of the Center for Development Policy Solutions and as an Assistant Professor for the Master’s in Development Practice program at Columbia University.

Her developmental role in Nigeria was evident in her role as the Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) after serving three presidents over a period of six years.

Earlier in 2005, she was charged with the responsibility of coordinating Nigeria’s debt relief funds toward the attainment of the MDGs. From 2002-2005, Mohammed coordinated the Task Force on Gender and Education for the UN Millennium Project.

Following her excellent performance towards re-engineering Nigerian environmental sustainability, she received the National Honours Award of the Order of the Federal Republic in 2006 and was inducted in the Nigerian Women’s Hall of Fame the following year.

Mohammed, as minister of environment aided Nigeria towards the implementation of the Intended National Determined Contribution (INDC) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

The INDC when fully implemented is expected to grow Nigeria’s economy by five per cent yearly and also improve standards of living, electricity generation and also contributes to Greenhouse gases reduction.

INDC, she had assured would present a huge opportunity for Nigeria to embark on adaptive and mitigation actions that would reduce the effects of climate change in the country.

Her commitment to safeguarding Nigerians through environmental challenges is demonstrated by her statement as minister of environment “It is the desire of this administration to support the stability of the nation, based on a model of national progress and development that respects the sustainability of the environment, as well as the economic and social aspects of development,”

From 2005-2011 Amina J Mohammed served as the senior special adviser to the President on MDGs; coordinating debt relief gains to Nigeria among other national and global services which include with the UN Secretary General Global Sustainability Panel, Africa Women’s Millennium Initiative and Millennium Promise Initiative.

Her services touches on Institute of Scientific & Technical Information, China, Hewlett Foundation on Education, Action aid International “Right to Education Project”, Adviser Global Development Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation amongst others.