WOMAN CRUSH WEDNESDAY

Our woman crush Wednesday is none other but our beautiful and quintessential Amina J Mohammed.

 Amina J Mohammed is a woman worthy of emulation. She has inspired a lot of women, both young and old to push boundaries and translate their dreams to reality. 

She serves as a role model to the upcoming generations. She is an advocate for peace and she serves humanity wholeheartedly. 

Below is her brief biography and achievements. 

Amina Mohammed was born in Liverpool, UK, in 1961 to a Nigerian veterinarian officer and a British nurse. She is the eldest of five daughters.

Amina attended primary school in Kaduna and Maiduguri, and Buchan School in Isle of Man. She further attended Henley Management Collage in 1989.

 After she finished her studies, her father demanded she return to Nigeria. Between 1981 and 1991, Mohammed worked with Archcon Nigeria, an architectural design firm in association with Norman and Dawbarn United Kingdom. In 1991, she founded Afri-Projects Consortium, and from 1991 to 2001 she became the project Executive Director.

From 2002 until 2005, Amina Mohammed coordinated the Task Force on Gender and Education for the United Nation Millennium project.  

Amina Mohammed later acted as the Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In 2005. She was charged with the coordination of Nigeria's debt relief funds toward the achievement of the MDGs.

 Her mandate included designing a Virtual Poverty Fund with innovative approach to poverty reduction, budget coordination and monitoring, as well as providing advice on pertinent issues regarding poverty, public sector reform and sustainable development.

Amina Mohammed later became the Founder and CEO of the Centre for Development Policy Solutions and as an Adjunct Professor for the Master's in Development Practice program at Columbia University. 

During that time, she served on numerous international advisory boards and panels, including the UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development.  

She also chaired the Advisory Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Monitoring Report on Education (GME).

From 2012, Amina Mohammed was a key player in the post 2015 Development Agenda process, serving as the Special Adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki moon on Post-2015 development planning. 

In this role, she acted as the link between the Secretary-General, his High Level Panel of Eminent Persons (HLP), and the General Assembly’s Open Working Group (OWG), among other stakeholders. 

From 2014, she also served on the Secretary-General's Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development.

Amina Mohammed served as Federal Minister of Environment in the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari from November 2015 to February 2017. During that time, she was Nigeria's representative in the African Union (AU) Reform Steering Committee, chaired by Paul Kagame. 

She inspires the upcoming generation of women leaders and she is an embodiment of knowledge.

By Hindatu Abdullahi