United Nations

NEW YORK, 31 July (UN Headquarters) -- The Secretary-General today appointed Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka as the new Executive Director of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat). She will take up her new responsibilities at the Nairobi-based agency in the next three months. 

Ms. Tibaijuka is currently Special Coordinator for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked and Small Island Developing Countries in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).  In that capacity, she is responsible for strengthening developing countries' capacity to negotiate trade agreements within the World Trade Organization (WTO).  She was recently designated Executive Secretary of the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries, scheduled to be held in Brussels next year. 

A Tanzanian national, Ms. Tibaijuka holds a doctorate in Agricultural Economics from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden. While teaching economics at the University of Dar es Salaam, she also served as a member of the Tanzanian Government delegation to several United Nations summits. At the World Food Summit (Rome, 1996), she was elected Coordinator for Eastern Africa in the Network for Food Security, Trade and Sustainable Development. 

As founding chairperson of more than one advocacy organization within the United Republic of Tanzania, Ms. Tibaijuka is well known for her dedication to promoting women's rights, particularly the right to education, land and inheritance.  She has undertaken extensive research on issues ranging from agriculture and rural development to welfare economics and aid policy.  She has published five books and a large number of articles and papers.

Ms. Tibaijuka speaks English, Swahili, Haya, Swedish and some French.  She is a widow and has four children.