Anna Tibaijuka was born in Tanzania in 1950. She studied agricultural economics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden. She then worked as a Professor of Economics at the University of Dar es Salaam Tanzania. In 1994, she founded the Tanzanian National Women’s Council, BAWATA, an independent non-party-affiliated organization fighting for women’s economic and social rights. In 1996, she founded the Barbro Johannson Girls’ Education Trust (Joha Trust), which advocates for quality girls’ education in Tanzania.
In 1998, Tibaijuka joined the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development as Director and Special Coordinator for the Least Developed, Land Locked and Island Developing Countries. In 2000, she was appointed as Assistant Secretary General and Executive Director of the former United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS), the UN agency for the built-up environment and urban development. During her first two years in office, Tibaijuka oversaw major reforms that led the UN General Assembly to upgrade the UNCHS in 2001 to a fully-fledged UN programme, UN-HABITAT, and she was elected as its first Executive Director. Until her resignation in 2010 to run for political office in Tanzania, she was the second highest ranking African woman in the UN system.
In 2010, Tibaijuka became Member of Parliament in Tanzania for the Muleba South constituency and the Minister of Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Developments.
Tibaijuka delivered the Beatty Lecture on October 20, 2007, titled "Divided Cities: Caught between hope and despair".
Image: Owen Egan
