Incoming Secretary-General appoints three women to key leadership positions

The incoming UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has appointed Amina Mohammed, Nigeria’s environment minister and a key player in the development of the 2030 Agenda, as Deputy Secretary-General. He has also announced the appointments of two other women to key leadership posts.

Having made achieving gender parity at the world body a priority of his tenure, Guterres has appointed Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, a senior Brazilian foreign ministry official, to serve as his chief of staff, and Kyung-wha Kang of South Korea to the new position of special adviser on policy.

Viotti, currently Brazil’s undersecretary for Asia and the Pacific, previously served as ambassador to Germany and as UN envoy, helping to shape Brazil’s role within the BRICS group of emerging economies, and as director for human rights in the foreign ministry. Kang currently heads Guterres’s transition team and has served as deputy UN aid chief since April 2013.

For further information see https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/15/next-un-chief-names-three-women-to-senior-posts