United Together: A Conversation with UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed

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On UN Charter Day, Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed will speak to UN advocates about the importance of standing up for the world right now. Ahead of the UN’s 75th anniversary, she will discuss how we can be leaders in our communities to help make the world better by the time the UN turns 100. Ms. Mohammed’s remarks will be followed by a Q&A discussion. If you’d like to contribute to the Q&A, please submit your question ahead of time using the question box on the registration form.

FEATURED SPEAKERS:

Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General to the United Nations, Executive Office of the Secretary-General (EOSG)

Ms. Amina J. Mohammed is the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group.

Prior to her appointment, Ms. Mohammed served as Minister of Environment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where she steered the country’s efforts on climate action and efforts to protect the natural environment.

Ms. Mohammed first joined the United Nations in 2012 as Special Adviser to former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with the responsibility for post-2015 development planning. She led the process that resulted in global agreement around the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Ms. Mohammed began her career working on the design of schools and clinics in Nigeria. She served as an advocate focused on increasing access to education and other social services, before moving into the public sector, where she rose to the position of adviser to three successive Presidents on poverty, public sector reform, and sustainable development.

Ms. Mohammed has been conferred several honorary doctorates and has served as an adjunct professor, lecturing on international development. The recipient of various global awards, Ms Mohammed has served on numerous international advisory boards and panels. She is the mother of six children and has one grandchild.

Simon Estes, World-Renowned Opera Singer

A native of Centreville, Iowa, Simon Estes is one of the world’s greatest bass-baritone opera singers. The son of a coal miner, Dr. Estes was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve widespread success and is viewed as part of a group of performers that was instrumental in helping to break down the barriers of racial prejudice in the opera world. He has sung at most of the world’s major opera houses as well as in front of presidents, popes and internationally renowned figures and celebrities, including Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin, Yasser Arafat, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Beyond his celebrated opera career, Dr. Estes has created a lasting legacy through his humanitarian work around the world. He established a foundation in Switzerland to provide financial assistance for children in need, initiated a music school in South Africa, and provided hundreds of scholarships to students in his home state of Iowa. In 2010, while performing at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Dr. Estes learned that every 30 seconds a child was dying from malaria, and that insecticide-treated bed nets could save their lives. This realization inspired him to embark on what would become a lifetime mission: to send one million bed nets to Africa. Since 2013, Simon has raised $532,000 through personal donations, portions of concert ticket and CD sales, and his network of high net-work donors. Through this funding, Nothing But Nets has distributed over 100,000 nets in malaria-endemic regions throughout Africa. In July 2017, the United Nations Foundation honored Dr. Estes with a Lifetime Impact Award, presenting the award at a ceremony in Des Moines.