Zainab Bangura | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bangura in 2013 | |
| Director-General,United Nations Office at Nairobi | |
| Assumed office January 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Maimunah Mohd Sharif |
| United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict | |
| In office 22 June 2012 – 12 April 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Margot Wallström |
| Succeeded by | Pramila Patten |
| Sierra Leone Minister of Health and Sanitation | |
| In office 3 December 2010 – 3 September 2012 | |
| Preceded by | Soccoh Kabia |
| Succeeded by | Tamba Borbor-Sawyer |
| Sierra LeoneMinister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 14 October 2007 – 3 December 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Momodu Koroma |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Bandabla Dauda |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Zainab Hawa Sesay[citation needed] (1959-12-18)18 December 1959 (age 65) |
| Political party | All People's Congress (APC) |
| Spouse | Alhaji Shekie Bangura |
| Residence(s) | Freetown, Sierra Leone New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Fourah Bay College |
| Profession | Social activist |
Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura (/ˈzaɪnəbˈhɑːwəbəŋˈɡuːrə/; born 18 December 1959) is aSierra Leonean politician and social activist who has been serving as the Director-General of theUnited Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) since 2018,[1] appointed byUnited Nations Secretary-GeneralAntónio Guterres.[2] She served as the second United NationsSpecial Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict with the rank ofUnder-Secretary-General of the United Nations from 2012 to 2017, in succession to the first holder of the post,Margot Wallström. In 2017 she was succeeded byPramila Patten.[3][4][5]
In 2007, Bangura became Sierra Leone'sforeign minister in the government of PresidentErnest Bai Koroma of theAll People's Congress (APC) Party.[6] She was the second woman to serve in that post, followingShirley Gbujama who held that position from 1996 to 1997. She served as Minister of Health and Sanitation from 2010 to 2012.
The daughter of animam,[7] Zainab Hawa Bangura was born "Zainab Hawa Sesay" in the small rural town ofYonibana,Tonkolili District in theNorthern Province ofBritish Sierra Leone.[citation needed] She hails from theTemneethnic group. She was born into a family of limited means, and she attended secondary school on a scholarship that was awarded to her by the Mathora Girls Secondary School nearMagburaka. She later attended the Annie Walsh Girls Secondary School in the capital city ofFreetown.
Then, after graduating from Sierra Leone'sFourah Bay College, Bangura moved to theUnited Kingdom for advanced diplomas in Insurance Management at theCity University Business School of London and theUniversity of Nottingham.[8] While in her early 30s, she became vice-president of one of her country's largest insurance companies.
Bangura speaks three languages:Temne,Krio, and English.
Bangura became a social activist during the difficult period when Sierra Leone was ruled by theNPRCmilitary junta. She began with consciousness-raising efforts among urban market women, reminding her followers that her own mother was a market woman. In 1995, she and lawyerYasmin Jusu-Sheriff foundedWomen Organized for a Morally Enlightened Nation (W.O.M.E.N.), a non-partisanwomen's rights group in Sierra Leone.[9] She co-founded theCampaign for Good Governance (CGG). Then, using CGG as her platform, she campaigned for the holding of national elections that finally drove the NPRC from power in 1996 and restored democratic government. This was Sierra Leone's first democratic election in 25 years, and the Sierra Leonean media and the general public attributed that success largely to her efforts.[citation needed]
DuringSierra Leone's civil war (1991–2002) Bangura spoke out forcefully against the atrocities committed against the civilian population by theRevolutionary United Front (RUF) and was targeted for assassination several times by that group. She also spoke against the corruption in the civilian government of PresidentAhmad Tejan Kabbah and the atrocities committed against civilians by government soldiers. In June 1997, as fighting engulfed the country, Bangura fled on a fishing boat to neighboringGuinea.[7]
In the2002 elections, Bangura ran against Kabbah for thepresidency of Sierra Leone, departing for the first time from her accustomed role as a non-partisancivil society activist. She won less than one percent of the vote, and her Movement for Progress (MOP) party failed to gain any seats inSierra Leone's parliament. Bangura claimed that her party's low vote count resulted fromcorruption in the voting system.
After the 2002 elections Bangura founded the National Accountability Group (NAG) whose mission was to fight against official corruption and to promote transparency and accountability in government. In 2006 she left Sierra Leone for neighbouring Liberia where she was appointed Director of the Civil Affairs Office in theUnited Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and given responsibility for the reconstruction of 16 Liberianministries and 30 government agencies following that country's devastatingcivil war.
Bangura returned to Sierra Leone in 2007 after Ernest Bai Koroma won the presidency in a hard-foughtnational election and was named foreign minister shortly thereafter. At the time, many Sierra Leoneans believed that the new president elevated this well known critic of government to such a high position to demonstrate his good faith in promising reform.
As a devotedMuslim, Bangura took time off politics in 2009 to travel to theHoly city ofMecca inSaudi Arabia to participate in the 2009Hajjpilgrimage ceremony.[10]
In 2012, Bangura served on theUnited Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities, which was jointly chaired byGoodluck Jonathan andJens Stoltenberg, and issued recommendations to increase access to and use of 13 essential commodities for women's and children's health.[11]
Bangura subsequently assumed her next position as Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict at the level of Under-Secretary-General on 4 September 2012. In this capacity, she also chaired the interagency networkUN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict.[12] During her time in office, she helped launch an international protocol in 2014 for dealing with rape and sexual violence in conflict, providing guidelines on the investigation of sex crimes and the collection of evidence for future prosecutions.[13] She notably negotiated a June 2015 deal with military commanders inIvory Coast to prosecute soldiers accused of sexual violence.[7] That same year, she visitedIraq andSyria and worked on an action plan to address the sexual violence being waged byIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) fighters.[14]
From 2018 until 2019, Bangura co-chaired (alongside Katherine Sierra) an Independent Commission on Sexual Misconduct, Accountability and Culture Change atOxfam.[15] In 2019, Guterres appointed her as Director-General of theUnited Nations Office at Nairobi, succeedingMaimunah Mohd Sharif.[8]
Bangura has won several international awards for her promotion of democracy and human rights in Africa, including: the African International Award of Merit for Leadership (Nigeria, 1999); the Human Rights Award given by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (New York, 2000); the Bayard Rustin Humanitarian Award given by theA. Philip Randolph Institute (Washington, DC, ); and the Democracy Award given by theNational Endowment for Democracy (Washington, DC, 2006).
In November 2013, Bangura received an award from Project 1808 Inc, an organisation in partnership withUniversity of Wisconsin Madison African Studies, Division of International Studies. The award recognised Bangura for her effectiveness in bringing attention to the issues surrounding sexual violence throughout the world by engaging fellow world leaders, rebels, militants, victims and communities.[22] In the same year, she was also recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women.[23]
Media related toZainab Bangura at Wikimedia Commons| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone 2007–2010 | Succeeded by |
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