Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro was named as the UN Deputy Secretary General in January, making her the third African to hold such a senior position at the UN in about twenty years, after former Secretary Generals Kofi Annan and Butross Butross Gali.
It also adds a name to the list of celebrated female achievers from East Africa. Women like Tanzanian Dr. Anna Tibaijuka, the UN-Habitat Executive Director who held the highest post in the UN system, Gertrude Mongela, the president of the Pan African Parliament, Kenya’s Mathaai Wangari, the environment Nobel Prize winner, and Uganda’s woman activist Winnie Byanyima, currently the director for Gender in the Bureau for Development Policy at the UN.
"I have decided to appoint Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Republic of Tanzania, as Deputy Secretary-General. Minister Migiro served previously as Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children of the United Republic of Tanzania for five years. In her academic career, she rose to the rank of a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Dar-es-Salaam.
She is a highly respected leader who has championed the cause of developing countries over the years. Throughout her distinguished service in diverse areas, she has displayed outstanding management skills with wide experience and expertise in socio-economic affairs and development issues.
I have deep confidence in and respect for her, and intend to delegate much of the management and administrative work of the Secretariat, as well as socio-economic affairs and development issues, under a clear line of authority to ensure that the Secretariat will function in a more effective and efficient manner."-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Her appointment to such a high level gives African women hope that at one time, their achievements would be recognised even they can be at the pinnacle of the United Nations.
Born in Songea, Tanzania on July 9th 1956, she is a product of Tanzania’s education system, having studied at Mnazi Mmoja Primary School, Korogwe Primary School, Weruweru Secondary School and Korogwe High School. She is fluent in German, Swahili and English.
Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro was appointed last year by the President of Tanzania, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation. Making history as she became the first woman to hold that post in the Republic of Tanzania since it's independence in 1961. The appointment also showed a lot of trust by Kikwete, who headed the ministry for 10 years prior to becoming the president. But some can argue that she was fit and favored for the post in the ministry because for a long time before her appointment, she had been head of the department of Politics and International relations for Tanzania’s ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
For five years however, she was the Minister of Community Development, Gender and Children in the government of former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa, but under the same CCM party.
As Foreign Minister, Dr. Migiro spearheaded Tanzania 's engagement in the pursuit of peace, security and development in the Great Lakes Region. She served as Chair of the Council of Ministers' meetings of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region, a process that culminated into a Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region.
Dr. Migiro was also Chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ministerial Committee of the Organ on Politics, Defense and Security Cooperation and President of the UN Security Council during its open debate on peace, security and development in the Great Lakes Region. As Chair of the SADC Organ, Dr. Migiro coordinated SADC assistance to the democratic process, including elections, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as well as support for national elections in Zambia and Madagascar . At the time of her appointment, she was chairing an important SADC Ministerial Troika Meeting ahead of the national elections in the Kingdom of Lesotho
It is this experience that Dr. Migiro hopes to use at her new appointment in the UN as Deputy Secretary General. She said during her six-year term as minister she learned how to deal with new challenges enabling her to be a better leader by collaborating with the others.
Dr. Migiro maintains four keys issues she hopes to tackle at the UN during her tenure: scrap the death penalty, maintain equality, reduce the gap between the North and South and to bring peace and stability to Africa.
A lawyer by profession, Dr. Migiro is not only an academician, but a politician and woman activist. She has been a senior lecturer at the University of Dar-es-Salaam where she excelled during her bachelor’s degree studies and was instantly accepted to take on her Masters, while at the same time teaching at the faculty of law. She later attended the University of Konstanz in southern Germany to attain her PhD.
Her former lecturers describe her as an intelligent and principled person who excels at everything she does. Others who know her performance in politics believe that she will rise to greater heights.
“I am confident that she will rise to the occasion of the tremendous responsibilities which the UN Secretary-General has entrusted in her. Her vast experience spanning an illustrious career as Minister of Government in Tanzania will certainly translate into a great asset for the UN quest for a new and better world economic and social order,” said the Secretary General of the East African Community, Juma Mwapachu.
On the women’s scene, Dr. Migiro was one of the founders of the Feminist Activism Coalition (FEMCAT), a coalition of over 50 non-governmental organizations that deal in democracy, human rights, gender equality and development. "We have worked with Dr. Migiro and have always admired her level of professional integrity as a lawyer and a woman academician. She is respected for being hardworking, articulate, and committed to serve the people. She is also a highly educated Tanzanian," the statement from FEMCAT said.
Dr. Migiro believes her appointment was due in part to Tanzania’s role in the UN Security Council and the country’s major strides in international relations. Tanzania’s participation in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan through the Africa Union has thrust the country into the lime light as a peace broker. But she says that being an African lends her first hand experience of the situations facing Africa and developing countries in general. “I will use this experience to contribute in effecting development changes on the global level.”
A statement from Ban Ki-Moon says her appointment was based on merit, ability and experience.
"I'm quite confident that with her extensive knowledge and experience as a former foreign minister and development minister of Tanzania, she will bring leadership qualities to this organization," Ban said.
Tanzania’s diplomats in peace affairs like Daudi Mwakawago and Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, who was appointed by Kofi Anaan as peace mediator in Darfur, have added to the credibility of a people from a country that has seen peace prevail since its independence in 1961.
Dr. Migiro’s appointment comes at a crucial period in major global issues and developments affecting the East African sub-region and indeed the African continent. Threats to world peace, security and stability loom large over the globe.
In Africa, the economic and social crisis that has blighted the continent for decades persists unabated—all this requiring the urgent, appropriate and decisive interventions of the United Nations.
When questioned by critics about her lack of adequate management experience, she had the following response:
World leaders agreed on major reforms at a UN summit in 2005, and the 192 member states have taken some steps to modernize the organization, which was founded in the ashes of World War II. But developed and developing countries have been at odds over how to implement key reforms. The United States and other wealthy countries have demanded greater flexibility for the secretary-general and the UN Secretariat, but poorer nations have been reluctant to give up power over the UN budget and administrative matters. Migiro said she would like to see all UN development programmes in a country "under one roof" -- that there is "one budget, one vision and one voice" instead of many separate UN agencies and programmes often competing with each other.
"I do have that managerial capability," she said, citing her experience as an academic and in successfully managing two government ministries.
"And maybe I should emphasize that, yes, the United Nations is a big organization, but management does not always have to do with the size of the organization," Dr Migiro said.
"What matters is whether one has the experience, the skills, the dedication and the commitment to work as a team. And my experience in the last week has shown that there's a lot of expertise, there's a lot of skills within the United Nations -- and I'm ready to tap the skills combined with my own," she said.
Dr. Migiro, 50, becomes the first black woman and first African to hold the position of Deputy UN Secretary-General, a post created in 1998. She follows after Louise Frechette of Canada and Mark Malloch of Britain in the post.
She is married to Prof Cleophace Migiro, a lecturer at the university of Dar es Saalam and they have two children.
sources
http://www.thewip.net/contributors/2007/03/profile_dr_asharose_migiro.html
http://www.un.org/sg/deputysg.shtml
http://english.people.com.cn/200702/06/eng20070206_347851.html.
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