Biographical Note

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS HILDE JOHNSON OF NORWAY DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

OF UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND

 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Hilde Johnson of Norway as Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Since 2005, Ms. Johnson has served as Senior Adviser to the President of the African Development Bank.  Ms. Johnson was Norway's Minister of International Development, a post she has held twice: from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005.  Before taking up her Cabinet post, Ms. Johnson was a member of the Norwegian Parliament for five years, during which she sat on the Enlarged Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs.  Ms. Johnson served as Co-Chair of the Global Coalition for Africa.  She has been a key facilitator in Sudan peace negotiations, and has chaired the Sudan Committee of the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) Partners Forum.  Ms. Johnson has also served on advisory groups in the World Bank, and is the founder of the Utstein Group, a consultation group of six like-minded donor countries.  In 2003, she was awarded the "Commitment to Development Award" by the Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Johnson was born in 1963 in Arusha, Tanzania.  She holds a bachelors degree in history, political science and social anthropology and a master’s degree in social anthropology from the University of Oslo.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record