Anna Tibaijuka

Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka (born 12 October 1950) is a Tanzanian CCM politician and Member of Parliament for Muleba South constituency since 2010. She served as the Minister of Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Developments from 2010 to 2014.
She is also a former under-secretary-general of the United Nations and executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). Until her resignation in 2010 to run for political office in Tanzania, she was the second highest ranking African woman in the UN system.

Born in Tanzania, Tibaijuka studied agricultural economics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala and is fluent in English, Swahili, Swedish and French. She is the widow of the former Tanzanian ambassador Wilson Tibaijuka, who died in 2000. She is the second highest ranking African woman in the UN after Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, the deputy UN secretary general (who is also a Tanzanian) In October 2010 she became MP for CCM for Muleba District, Kagera Region, in the national election.

From 1993 to 1998, Tibaijuka was associate professor of economics at the University of Dar es Salaam. During this period, she was also a member of the Tanzanian government delegation to several United Nations summits, including the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Istanbul, 1996); the World Food Summit (Rome 1996); the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing 1995) and the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995). At the World Food Summit in Rome, she was elected coordinator for Eastern Africa in the Network for Food Security, Trade and Sustainable Development (COASAD). Mrs. Tibaijuka has also been a board member of UNESCO's International Scientific Advisory Board since November 1997. She is a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.

Special co-ordinator

Executive director of UN-HABITAT

In September 2000 she was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan as executive director of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements. During her first two years in office, Mrs. Tibaijuka oversaw major reforms which resulted in the United Nations General Assembly upgrading the Centre to programme status and renaming it the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). Tibaijuka was elected by the General Assembly to her first four-year term as head of the new agency in July 2002 and was given the rank of under-secretary-general, the first—and only—African woman to reach this level within the UN system.

Special envoy of the secretary general

In June 2005, the secretary general appointed Tibaijuka as his special envoy to study the impact of the Zimbabwean government's campaign (known as Operation Murambatsvina) to evict informal traders and people deemed to be squatting illegally in certain areas. As the evictions were concentrated on areas which had traditionally strongly supported the oppositional Movement for Democratic Change, many commentators believed the campaign was politically motivated. Although this was denied by the Zimbabwean government, there was strong international criticism.

Tibaijuka concluded her report saying that “while purporting to target illegal dwellings and structures and to clamp down on alleged illicit activities, [the operation] was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering”.[1]

The steering committee of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council elected Anna Tibaijuka as its new chair on 19 October 2010. Tibaijuka succeeded Roberto Lenton, whose second and final term of office ended in March 2011.

In 2004 the British prime minister, Tony Blair, invited Tibaijuka to be a member of the Commission for Africa, which he established to generate ideas and action to accelerate and sustain Africa's growth and development. The Commission, comprising 16 internationally known figures, completed its report in March 2005.

In December 2014, President of the United Republic of Tanzania Dr. Jakaya Kikwete sacked Tibaijuka from a post of Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development over her alleged involvement in the USD 250 million Tegeta escrow account scandal. Kikwete said he had asked Tibaijuka to “leave room for a new appointee,” after she received USD 1 million from James Rugemalira of VIP Engineering and Marketing (VIPEM) linked to the scandal.

Awards

2009: Gothenburg Award for Sustainable Development

Honorary academic awards

Year	University	Country	Honour
2002	McGill University	Canada	Doctor of Science in environment
2004	Heriot-Watt University	United Kingdom	Doctor of Science in construction
2006	University College London	United Kingdom	Doctor of Science in engineering
2007	Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology	Kenya	honorary degree in urban design
2009	Warsaw School of Economics	Poland	Honoris causa in economics
2010	Catholic University of Eastern Africa	Kenya	honorary degree in community development and peace
2010	Tongji University	China	Honorary professor