UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced on Friday the nomination of Ahunna Eziakonwa of Nigeria as Special Adviser on Africa.
She succeeds Cristina Duarte of Cabo Verde, for whom, according to a UN statement, Guterres “is grateful for her commitment and dedicated service to the organisation”.
Eziakonwa offers nearly three decades of UN leadership experience to her current job.
She is currently the UN Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator, and Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa at the United Nations Development Programme, where she oversees the organisation’s support to 46 African countries in achieving Agenda 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
“Since 2018, she has helped shape UNDP’s strategic approach to economic and political development across the continent,” the statement added.
As Chief of the Africa Section at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in New York, she managed humanitarian operations across 15 African countries and held senior posts in Liberia and Sierra Leone during critical periods in those nations.
At United Nations Headquarters, she contributed to peacekeeping, political analysis, and strategic communications relating to United Nations engagement in Africa, working with the UN Departments of Peacekeeping Operations, Political Affairs, and Public Information. Prior to joining the UN, she held positions in several African civil society organisations.
Eziakonwa holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs, with a focus on African economic and political development, from Columbia University, New York, USA, and a Bachelor of Arts in Pedagogy, English and Literary Studies from the University of Benin, Nigeria.
In addition to her native Igbo and English, she speaks fluent Yoruba and has a working knowledge of French.
