Amina J. Mohammed

"It's very important that we don't withhold aid from people that it matters most to."

"Sustainable development is not an option; it is an imperative."

"We cannot afford to exclude half of humanity from the solutions that will shape our future."

"Leaving no one behind means reaching the furthest behind first."

"Young people are not just the leaders of tomorrow. They are the partners of today."

"Until everyone gets the vaccine, we will all be at risk, and we will not be able to take the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to where they ought to be by 2030."

"For many, the health pandemic has been a tragedy, particularly in developed countries, but for developing countries it has a socio-economic impact that will take so much longer to recover from."

"Innovative instruments including blended finance can all play an important role, but we need to massively scale-up that delivery."

"We must design a future that is shaped by women and girls that realizes their right and aspirations to a world where equality is reality."

"We are better investing now because we just won’t be able to afford it later."

"For the first time we’re not putting a band-aid on the problem, we’re looking at the root causes."

"I think early childcare is not in a classroom, but very much in Africa today, it needs to start with adult literacy and mothers because as African women, and in our cultures"

"To begin to build the foundational skills of literacy and numeracy, by putting the digital in front so that we’re not waiting until oh, Africa is ready, or Africa has the resources right at the beginning."

"You’re not just looking at capacities and skills to connect to the outside world without understanding anything about who you are, and the part that you play in your own ecosystem."

"We learn to have pride and independence of one’s being, how that contributes from the inside out."

"And there has to be a huge amount of courage that what you’re doing is shaping the future. I mean, concretely, shaping that future for your people with what you know is the right thing."

"As human beings, what we look to is what they stood for."

"And I think that we have to think and listen to what the leader is saying and doing, rather than judge what’s in the closet."

"First of all, I think Africa is trying to make those strides that are necessary to achieving SDG 5 (Gender Equality). But the approach to development in Africa has always been ad hoc, and I think we have been pitting some of our greatest challenges against each other in terms of making choices. For example, we will say, Well we have to make a choice between a woman and health. Or a woman and an education budget. And I think this is where we have got it wrong. The fact is that women are an integral part of any investment, be it in health, in education, in agriculture, etc. Africa needs to recognise that our human resources are the biggest asset base that we have, and to ignore investing in 50% of it, is just foolhardy and affects results, as well as the rights that women have in their lives."

"We definitely need more women in decision-making and particularly in parliaments. For example in the DRC, they have a constitution that acknowledges parity, but they need the law to effect that. And in addition to the law, they also need to make investments in women, their education, their ability to actually participate in diplomacy and therefore, in the decision-making that goes along. In addition, there are a number of investments that need to be made in line with the laws aimed at empowering women."

"In Nigeria, it is quite shocking to see the low levels of women in parliament – both in the Senate and the House. And that we actually have men actively opposing efforts to reduce their capacity. I think here, Nigeria needs to change its strategy and it needs to start on the local level of the parties. Again, I see the great capacity of women in Nigeria to participate, so I don’t think that’s our challenge. Our challenge is the construct and what the male community puts into it."

"I think we must stop stereotyping some of these issues. The truth of the matter is that there is an evolution of society. At one point, you have one breadwinner, at another point you have more than one breadwinner and a different kind of context and environment. How do we empower everyone to have a role and a place in the home, in the workplace and in society? I think if we do that, we will balance the decisions that we take and we will not be shut out of it."

"I think men have to recognise that in every home, the woman has a right to participate in the economy and has the abilities to contribute to that. But that should not be done to the detriment of the home, and it should be a shared responsibility."

"When we are talking about women in politics, what we need to see is opening up those opportunities at all levels and institutions and that, I don’t think is happening. Men aren’t just going to step aside."

"However, gender parity is at the top of the agenda in the United Nations and everybody buys into gender parity in terms of aspiration. But the realities of how you move men out of positions in order to make room for women to get gender parity is a tough discourse and it has to start at the entry point – into parliament, into jobs, into institutions."

"And what the SDGs tell us is: Let’s take a step back and let’s ask people to set the foundations on which we are building sustainable development. Let’s get them right; let’s take the time to do that and not be in a hurry to fail."

"Most certainly, these are challenging times. But I think the ownership and the process that we started to get in this incredibly ambitious framework took into account context and recognised the different complexities of our world today. And also, the context of political upheavals, of conflict, of migration, and of terrorism. It really did take everything into account."

"I think it’s a real struggle and the response that we are seeing right now is how countries are grappling with what they are going to do about the current order. Let me just underscore here that we are in transition time with the SDGs. As we have always said, it would take a couple of years to transition from the MDGs to the SDGs."

"Yes. In the context of many of our countries that are experiencing different types of conflict and humanitarian challenges, it’s difficult to address some of these goals."

"The UN’s approach to that, as the secretary general firmly puts it in his vision, is: We have got to look at how we prevent conflicts and once we come out of them, how do we sustain the peace and development. And in the middle of this, we are saying that the SDGs are the frameworks that we need to invest in. There are therefore no quick wins in this discussion. If we are to have sustainable development, we cannot put a band-aid on things. And if you don’t address the root causes, we are never going to have sustainable development. Therefore, we have to go back to the drawing board and we have to be courageous about it; and the UN has to come together and be much more responsive in the way in which it supports countries, in order to move them forward."

"I think in the short term, as you will have seen in the last six months, the African Union (AU) and the United Nations have defined their frameworks for peace and security. Again, this is to bring more coordination and coherence, a more efficient way of looking at the results, and get them around the continent. What is important here is to align the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the UN’s Agenda 2030. So, in the short term, we are getting the partnership frameworks right especially on roles and responsibilities."

"But while you are right that we don’t see as many conflicts as before, we do, however, in those pockets, see much more larger scale conflicts, which have larger regional implications. I therefore think it’s much more challenging because they are bringing cross-border issues. Here again, the mechanisms are around putting mediation into place, ensuring that there is a plan straddling the peace process with development. And clearly addressing the fact that when we talk about the humanitarian development nexus, in theory, we have so many red lines. But in practice and on the ground, people are dealing with this in the same context and trying to move the humanitarian crisis to reintegration on a development trajectory that achieves the SDGs. So, it is difficult."

"We don’t often look at the fact that root causes can require to be addressed over the long-term. We have to have a balance on what we do in the short term; what can we do in the long-term, and there are some of those low-hanging fruit that give a sense of the possibilities of achieving the longterm objective. But people often want to have things done yesterday."

"The UNGA theme, tried first of all, put the emphasis on the need to bring the resources and the political commitment. We are going to discuss the problems we have and addressing their root causes, but at the same time, we have to find the resources and financing to put into development and unless we ratchet that up, then we will be losing the gains of peace as quickly as we are putting our resources at the problem."

"First of all, I think that any population should be seen from the perspective of being an asset to a country and we need to make the investment to make sure there is quality and that everyone has equal opportunity. Today we have populations growing without the ability to service them and therefore, women and children take the brunt of this and are suffering. We have to go back to those policies and see why that is happening. In many cases, it’s because we don’t have the choices around population issues to make those decisions and I think that’s what we should be given, the free choice to make the decisions we need to, to have a healthy family."

"Depending on the context of my means, this may be two children or six children. I think that the bigger, inestimable problem, is the ability to make sure that we can provide for those that come into the world. So, on the population issue, I think there are many dimensions to it and health and life is a very big one."

"I think both in the global community and in Africa, we have the right rhetoric, we have the correct framework. But it’s when that rubber hits the road that action comes into play. I think in the case of the AU, what we have seen the African leadership do in the last few months is to, first of all, get behind the reforms that are needed and make them happen, and ask and take the tough questions on how to reform an institution to take responsibility for the decisions that happen to get the results, both in terms of the AU’s Agenda 2063 and Silencing the Guns. We have also seen that they made progress in taking responsibility towards financing the AU itself. These are all works in progress at different stages but I believe the leadership right now is incredibly serious about it and we are redefining our relationship with Africa on the basis of respect and solidarity, as the [UN] secretary general says."

"I do think that we have an opportunity now. What we have to do is to make sure we get behind the leadership. Let me just say that on both Agenda 2063 and the SDGs, Africa is the only region that has a common position – a 10-year plan."

"We also have a lady who is heading up the Economic Commission for Africa, Vera Songwe, and I think that this is amazing because she’s going to bring a different kind of vision to supporting Africa’s agenda; making sure that we integrate the economy; women’s issues, youth issues, technology, across some of the promises that have been made by African leaders. So, in short, I would say the rubber is about to hit the road and what we need to see is that rhetoric and those frameworks are turned into action."

"The response to that is so complicated; it’s not a neat number, it’s not a neat set of targets. I think that, first, we should acknowledge that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were a really good effort. It was the first time the world came together to set a number of integrated issues together. We might not have achieved all of them everywhere but we knew that it did work and therefore, what we did was take it a step further."

"The MDGs are still unfinished business but what this new framework has done is provide, first of all, the recognition of building on the MDGs with a little bit more ambition. But to do so, we do have to look at strong governments and institutions. We need strong partnerships and the funding that comes with that. What we have is a response that is still valid, even more today because of the kind of political turmoil we see ourselves in."

"Regarding gender-based violence, I believe as a human family, the first thing we have to do is draw up our sphere of tolerance. And then to look at what we need to put in place to ensure that tolerance becomes a sustainable part of our community. In Nigeria, for instance, gender-based violence takes many different forms depending on cultural practices. And there’s been a lot of work that the United Nations has done to overcome some of them. But new incidences are being seen, as we face the complexities of some of the conflicts we have in the northeast, for instance, with Boko Haram kidnappings, the rapes and the sex for food. These are unacceptable but again, you have some gains in other parts of the country where we have greatly reduced some of [the harmful] cultural practices."

"And in the DRC, where Goma was once known as the rape capital of the world, they have made strides and put in place people who are responsible for trying to reverse the tide. Working with UN Women and our special representative on sexual violence in conflict, we have seen a huge reduction, although not enough, because we said zero tolerance. However, we need to scale this up and share the best practice."

"Wow. We have so many young women and people around the world and around Africa that I come across and I also look up to them. A New African Woman is strong and is at the top of her game in informing and shaping the future of Africa on every level: economically, politically, environmentally, because we are there in all these fields. It is also about African women’s rights and aspirations. African women are closing the gap between the realities of today and our aspirations for tomorrow."

"I think it starts first of all for from where we create access to education, and the curriculum that we put in place for it. And we talk about the scientific basis that we find we must have in early childcare. I think early childcare is not in a classroom, but very much in Africa today, it needs to start with adult literacy and mothers because as African women, and in our cultures – our children are with us until they’re three, attached at the hip, if you would."

"So I think that we need to find creative ways of bringing education into the home, and not taking kids to institutions at that early age. So early childhood education, for me, is one transformation that happens together with a mother [for] that bonding in the community, where we say that Africa is brought up by a village and not by a couple of people. So, really bringing that community learning into early child care."

"Then, building on that, the primary and secondary education that we need. One that really looks at that intrinsic value of education to a person, a person’s identity from their cultures, their religion, the good practices – so we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater – we’re always referring to harmful cultural practices, and we never look at it from the positive side."

"And that we move on from things that we did not know were so harmful because they were so cultural, or so male-vested. And we need to move on. But there are some good things there."

"Our ambition is for each child, as a global citizen, and not just an African citizen, but to bring that whole technology and learning into an environment."

"What I’m trying to say is that as we learn to have pride and independence of one’s being, how that contributes from the inside out. So you’re not just looking at capacities and skills to connect to the outside world without understanding anything about who you are, and the part that you play in your own ecosystem."