Anna Tibaijuka

Tanzanian politician and United Nations official

Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka (/t//iː//b//aɪ//dʒ//uː//k//æ/; born 12 October 1950) is a Tanzanian politician and United Nations official. She was a Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Member of the National Assembly for Muleba South constituency during 2010 to 2020 and served as the Minister of Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Developments from 2010 to 2014. Tibaijuka is also a former Under Secretary General of the United Nations and executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN HABITAT). She was the second highest ranking African woman in the UN system, after Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro, until her resignation in 2010 to run for political office in Tanzania.

Tibaijuka was born on 12 October 1950 in Kagabiro, Muleba District, Tanganyika Territory (now a part of Kagera Region of Tanzania) to small holder farmers. She was initially admitted at the University of Dar es Salaam in April 1975 to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree. She received a BSc from Sokoine University of Agriculture and studied agricultural economics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala. She is fluent in English, Swahili, Swedish and French.

From 1993 to 1998, Tibaijuka was associate professor of economics at the University of Dar es Salaam. During this period, she was also a member of the Tanzanian government delegation to several United Nations summits, including the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements ( Istanbul, 1996); the World Food Summit (Rome, 1996); the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) and the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995). At the World Food Summit in Rome, she was elected coordinator for Eastern Africa in the Network for Food Security, Trade and Sustainable Development (COASAD). Tibaijuka has also been a board member of UNESCO's International Scientific Advisory Board since November 1997. She is a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.

In September, 2000, she was appointed by Secretary General Kofi Annan, as executive director of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements. During her first two years in office, Tibaijuka oversaw major reforms which resulted in the United Nations General Assembly upgrading the centre to programme status and renaming it the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN HABITAT). Tibaijuka was elected by the General Assembly to her first four year term as head of the new agency in July 2002 and was given the rank of under secretary general, as the first African woman to reach this level within the UN system.

In June 2005, the Secretary General appointed Tibaijuka as his Special Envoy on Human Settlements Issues in Zimbabwe, with the directive to study the impact of the Zimbabwean government's campaign to evict informal traders and people deemed to be squatting illegally in certain areas, known as Operation Murambatsvina. As the evictions were concentrated on areas which had traditionally strongly supported the oppositional Movement for Democratic Change, many commentators believed the campaign was politically motivated. Although this was denied by the Zimbabwean government, there was strong international criticism. Tibaijuka concluded her report saying that “while purporting to target illegal dwellings and structures and to clamp down on alleged illicit activities, [the operation] was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering”.

The steering committee of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council elected Anna Tibaijuka as its new chair on 19 October 2010. Tibaijuka succeeded Roberto Lenton, whose second and final term of office ended in March 2011.

In 2004 the British prime minister, Tony Blair, invited Tibaijuka to be a member of the Commission for Africa, which he established to generate ideas and action to accelerate and sustain Africa's growth and development. The commission, comprising 16 internationally known figures, completed its report in March 2005.

In the Tanzanian national election, held October, 2010, she became a Member of Parliament (MP) for CCM, representing the Muleba District in the Kagera Region.

In December 2014, President of the United Republic of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete sacked Tibaijuka from a post of Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development over her alleged involvement in the US$250 million Tegeta escrow account scandal. Kikwete said he had asked Tibaijuka to "leave room for a new appointee," after she had not shown "due diligence" when receiving US$1 million from James Rugemalira of VIP Engineering and Marketing (VIPEM) linked to the scandal. Tibaijuka stated that the money was a donation for the "Johansson Girls Education Trust" and that she had forwarded it after receiving it on a personal account.

In 2015 she was renominated by 63% of regional CCM members to run again for the parliamentary seat of Muleba South. She won the election and returned to the parliament.

She was married to former Tanzanian ambassador Wilson Kamuhabwa Tibaijuka from 1975 until his death in 2000 and they have five children: Muganyizi (born 1976), Kemilembe (born 1979), Kagemulo (born 1986), Kankiza (born 1991), and one adopted child.