Page 18 - Q1 2021

COVER

Programme, which pledged $100 million for African impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The use of
start-up companies. vaccines is spreading fast across the developed
world and eventually into Africa. From development
In early 2021, Songwe was appointed by the finance to humanitarian support, many of the
G20 to the High Level Independent Panel (HLIP) powerful women aforementioned will be playing
on financing the global commons for pandemic key roles in the global effort to rescue the world
preparedness and response, co-chaired by Ngozi economy from the aftermath of the devastating
Okonjo-Iweala, Tharman Shanmugaratnam and impact of the virus.
Lawrence Summers. This role amongst others will
keep her under global focus this year.

Sahle-Work Zewde (H.E.)
Sahle-Work is the current President of Ethiopia
and the first woman to hold the office. A career
diplomat, she was elected president unanimously
by members of the Federal Parliamentary Assembly
on 25 October 2018.

American business magazine Forbes, on its
annual edition of the Forbes list of The World’s 100
Most Powerful Women, listed Sahle-Work as the
96th most powerful woman in the world, and the
highest-ranking African woman on the list.

Born in Addis Ababa in 1950, Sahle-Work
attended elementary and secondary school at
Lycée Guebre-Mariam in Addis Ababa, after which
she studied natural science at the University of
Montpellier, France. She is fluent in Amharic, French
and English.

Sahle-Work was only the second woman to be
appointed an ambassador in Ethiopia’s history Source: Wikipedia
(Ambassador Yodit Emiru was the first woman to
hold an ambassadorship).

In June 2018, Secretary-General António
Guterres appointed Sahle-Work as his Special
Representative to the African Union and Head of Sahle-Work Zewde (H.E.)
the United Nations Office to the African Union at Sahle-Work is the current President of
the level of Under-Secretary-General of the United Ethiopia and the first woman to hold the
Nations. She was the first woman to hold the post. office.

The overarching global challenge for 2021 will be
how the global community copes with the lagging

18 | The Lion King | Jan - Mar 2021