Amina Mohamed Jibril is the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kenya
Tuesday, April 24, 2013—Ambassador Amina Mohamed is a committed international civil servant who has had a distinguished career in both public and foreign service. She has served in strategic government positions and been elected to key international positions. Her work experience in over twenty six years covers a broad spectrum of domestic and international assignments. She rose through the ranks in Kenya's diplomatic service to the highest level of Ambassador/Permanent Representative Kenya Mission to the UN at Geneva from 2000-2006. She served as Director, Europe and the Commonwealth and Director Diaspora from mid-2006-2007 and was Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs in 2008. Since July, 2011 she has served as United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
She is an excellent strategist and visionary anticipating the management needs of every organization she has been involved with. With her profound knowledge of the WTO and her strong managerial skills, Ambassador Amina Mohamed has all the required competencies to lead the WTO into the future.
She is fluent in English, Russian, Swahili and has a working knowledge of French.
A Distinguished African Diplomat
Ambassador Amina Mohamed has had a distinguished diplomatic career since 1986 and rising through the ranks to become Ambassador/Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission to the Republic of Kenya at Geneva in 2000. As the Permanent Representative, she represented Kenya in the UN system, and the WTO among other international organizations. Her strong interpersonal skills in negotiations, developed during her career in the multilateral fora, enabled her to effectively articulate Kenya's interests in the WTO. She participated in drafting and interpretation of International Trade Treaties.
An Expert in Public Sector and Institutional Reform
Ambassador Amina Mohamed was instrumental in restructuring, reforming and rationalizing the Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Missions abroad. She chaired the team that drafted Kenya's foreign trade policy focusing on economic and commercial diplomacy. As Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs, she supervised the drafting, negotiation, national referendum and promulgation of the new Constitution of Kenya 2008- 2010, including institutional reforms on elections, ethics and integrity, access to justice and the development of a national cohesion policy. At UNEP, Ambassador Amina Mohamed has spearheaded the implementation of UNEP's Medium Term Strategy and Programmes as well as on-going reforms. Most recently she has been actively engaged with intergovernmental processes in implementing the RIO+20 outcomes and support efforts to enhance the funding base of the organization.
A Distinguished Legal Practitioner
Through her experience in the multilateral fora, she has provided legal advice during Kenya's tenure in the Security Council, negotiations in the WTO, particularly in launching the Doha trade talks and contributed texts in the Kenya's constitution where foreign trade has been integrated with Foreign Affairs.
Result-oriented Team Leader
Throughout her career, Ambassador Amina Mohamed has demonstrated solid leadership and proven negotiations skills. She chaired three key WTO bodies: the Dispute Settlement Body, the Trade Policy Review Body and the General Council during her tenure in Geneva. During which important decisions and recommendations were made. Under her leadership as the General Council Chair, the accession of Saudi Arabia was concluded; she guided the negotiations and preparation for the 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial Conference where substantial progress was made on Doha Development Agenda; the LDC's waiver on market access was successfully concluded and members agreed to amend the TRIPS agreement to legally allow WTO members without capacity to produce pharmaceutical products to import and address public health concerns. At UNEP she has been instrumental in enhancing the capacity of the institution and seeking additional resources to initiate new goals and action plans.
Key Positions Held
2011-To date:
United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director, UNEP
2008- 2011:
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs
2010-2011:
President of the United Nations Conference on Transnational Crime, Vienna
2006- 2007:
Director, Europe and Commonwealth Countries and Director for Diaspora matters
• Chairman the Task Force Sub - Committee on Strengthening and restructuring of the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Affairs
2000- 2006:
Ambassador Permanent Representative, Kenya Mission to the UN and other International Organizations at Geneva.
• Chairman, Coordinator and the Spokesperson for the African Group in the WTO, Human Rights Commission
• Served as President of the Conference on Disarmament in 2002
• Chairman the International Organization for Migration in 2002
• Chairman the Trade Policy Review Body in 2003
• Chairman Dispute Settlement Body in 2004
• Chairman General Council in 2005
• Member of the Executive Boards and Committees of the WHO, UNHCR, WIPO, ILO, UNCTAD AND UNAIDS 2001-2005
1990-2000:
Kenya's Legal Advisor in various Missions abroad, including the 6th Committee of the UN
1986-1990:
Legal Advisor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Honours
National Award of Chief of Burning Spear (CBS)
Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Stella della solidarieta italian a
Life Member, Red Cross Society
Member of the Life and Peace Institute International Advisory Council, Sweden
Member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Arctic
Member of the Strathmore Law School Advisory Board, Kenya
Education
LLM University of Kiev
Kenya School of Law
Post Graduate Diploma in International Relations, Oxford University
UNITAR Fellow
Source: http://aminamohamed.org/index.html