United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres has announced the appointment of Sanda Ojiambo as the Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact.
Ms. Ojiambo has served as the Head of Sustainable Business and Social Impact at Safaricom Plc since 2010. She was also the Senior Manager of Safaricom and MPESA Foundations from 2008 to 2010 which led to the implementation of several public-private partnership initiatives between Safaricom and UN organizations. She holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and International Development from McGill University, Canada.
She will assume the role on 17th June 2020 where she will bring 20 years of experience to lead the UN Global Compact in its next phase to mobilize a global movement of sustainable companies and stakeholders to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. She will assume the role at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit, which will virtually convene leading voices from business, government, the United Nations, civil society and academia.
Ms. Ojiambo will succeed Lise Kingo from Denmark who announced at the end of last year that she will be stepping down from the role after 5 years in June. She is the second woman to be appointed in the role.
The UN Nations Global Compact was launched in July 2000 as the Secretary General’s strategic policy and advocacy initiative calling for the alignment of business operations and strategies with the 10 universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption and motivates companies to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals into their core strategy and operations. It has over 10,000 corporate and 3,000 non-business participants from 160 countries.
