Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan

- - - - - - - - - - -

• Kofi Annan was born in the Gold Coast(now Ghana) on 8 April 1938.
• His birth name was Kofi Atta Annan. The name'Kofi' literally means “a boy born on a Friday.
• He had a twin sister, Eufa, who died in 1991.
• Kofi Atta Annan was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, from January 1997 to December 2006.
• Annan was fluent in English, French, Akan, and some Kru languagesas well as other African languages.
• Annan died on the morning of 18 August 2018 in Bern, Switzerland, at the age of 80.

• Annan attended the Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast from 1954 to 1957.
• In 1957, the year Annan graduated from Mfantsipim, the Gold Coast gained independence from the UK and began using the name "Ghana".
• After he graduated from Mfantsipim, Annan attended Kumasi College of Science and Technology, a local school.
• He then received a Ford Foundation grant, which allowed him to complete his education at Macalester Collegein 1961.
• He attended the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, where he completed his DEA degree.
• He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technologywhere he earned his Master of Science degree.

• In 1962, Kofi Annan started working as a budget officer for the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations(UN).
• From 1974 to 1976, he worked as a manager of the state-owned Ghana Tourist Development Company in Accra.
• In 1980 he became the head of personnel for the office of the UN High Commission for Refugees(UNHCR) in Geneva.
• In 1983 he became the director of administrative management services of the UN Secretariatin New York.

• In 1987, Annan was appointed as an Assistant Secretary-Generalfor Human Resources Management and Security Coordinator for the UN system.
• In 1990, he became Assistant Secretary-General for Program Planning, Budget and Finance, and Control.
• When Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghaliestablished the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) in 1992, Annan was appointed to the new department as Deputy to then Under-Secretary-General Marrack Goulding.
• He was appointed a Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the former Yugoslavia, serving from November 1995 to March 1996.

• The UN Security Council recommended Annan on 13 December 1996.
• He started his first term as Secretary-General on 1 January 1997.
• Soon after taking office in 1997, Annan released two reports on management reform.
  • Management and Organisational Measures (A/51/829)
  • Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform (A/51/950)

• The Security Council recommended Annan for a second term on 27 June 2001, and the General Assembly approved his reappointment on 29 June 2001.

• At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, national leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration, which was subsequently implemented by the United Nations Secretariat as the Millennium Development Goals in 2001.

• Annan suggested the establishment of a United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS), a consortium of high-tech volunteer The initiative was launched at the United Nations Volunteersand was active from February 2001 to February 2005.

The United Nations Global Compact

• On 26 July 2000, the United Nations Global Compactwas officially launched at UN headquarters in New York.
• The Compact established ten core principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption, and under the Compact, companies commit to the ten principles and are brought together with UN agencies, labour groups and civil society to effectively implement them.

The Global Fund

• Annan issued a five-point "Call to Action" to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
• Annan proposed the establishment of a Global AIDS and Health Fund, dedicated to the battle against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.
• In June of that year, the General Assembly of the United Nations committed to the creation of such a fund during a special session on AIDS and the permanent secretariat of the Global Fund was subsequently established in January 2002.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

• Kofi Annan was awarded the Peace Prize for having revitalized the UN and for having given priority to human rights.

• The Nobel Committee also recognized his commitment to the struggle to contain the spreading of the HIV virus in Africa and his declared opposition to international terrorism.

Kofi Annan Foundation

• Kofi Annan set up the Kofi Annan Foundation in 2007 to mobilise leaders from all sectors to provide leadership where it needed.

• The Foundation works on the premise that there can be no long-term peace without development and no sustainable development without peace.

• In September 2016, Annan was asked to lead the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State– an impoverished region in Myanmar.
• The commission, widely known simply as the "Annan Commission", was opposed by many Myanmar Buddhists as unwelcome interference in their relations with the Rohingya.

 BOOKS – KOFI ANNAN

• Interventions: A Life in War and Peace
• We the peoples: A UN for the twenty

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -