Congratulations to Amina J. Mohammed, the next Deputy Secretary-General (DSG) of the United Nations!

The entire WSSCC family extends its congratulations to the Honourable Amina J. Mohammed, Minister of Environment for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on her nomination to serve as Deputy Secretary-General (DSG) of the United Nations.

Ms. Mohammed, who currently serves as Chair of the WSSCC Steering Committee, today was appointed by Secretary-General designate António Guterres as the nominee for the DSG post during a press conference at UN headquarters.

“On behalf of WSSCC and our nearly 4,000 members and implementing partners worldwide, I offer my warm congratulations to Minister Mohammed,” said Dr. Chris Williams, Executive Director of WSSCC. “The sanitation and hygiene community will have a champion in the leadership of the United Nations. As a primary architect of the Sustainable Development Goals, Amina is in a strategic position to offer her wisdom and experience to Member States as they look towards implementation by 2030.”

Ms. Mohammed has a distinguished 30-year career in human development and environmental issues in both the public and private sectors. Before becoming Nigeria’s Minister of Environment, she served as Special Adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Post-2015 development planning.

As Chair of WSSCC, Ms. Mohammed has spearheaded an effort to strengthen the organization’s governance and management in advance of the launch of WSSCC’s 2017-2020 Strategic Plan. These efforts will strengthen WSSCC’s transition from a small to a medium-sized organization, and one which continues to make meaningful contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals. As she has noted previously, safe sanitation is a social determinant which is vital for the attainment of global goals on health, education and gender equality.

When she joined as Chair, Ms. Mohammed highlighted the strengths of WSSCC, saying “it’s unique because it brings together people’s voices and the UN with its integrity at country level to do great things that will help inform others in the sector. WSSCC carries the ambition and will make us proud of the things that we need to do, those of us in the development field.”

Minister Mohammed would build on the legacy of previous United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, an indefatigable advocate for sanitation. On behalf of the Secretary-General, Eliasson drove a renewed effort on sanitation and water goals and continuously pressed governments and the UN to lift water and sanitation up the global agenda.