Kofi Atta Annan (/ˈkoʊfi ˈænæn/; 8 April 1938 – 18 August 2018), was a Ghanaian diplomat, who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations. From the dates of January of 1997, to December of 2006.
Annan, and the UN, were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation. As well as chairman of The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.
Personal Details
Born
8th of April, 1938
Kumasi, Gold Coast (now Ghana)
Died
18th of August, 2018 (aged 80)
Bern, Switzerland
Spouse(s)
Titi Alakija – (m. 1965; div. 1983)
Nane Lagergren – (m. 1984)
Children: 3, including Kojo
Education
1). Kumasi College of Science and Technology
2). Macalester College
3). Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
4). Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Profession
Diplomacy. Annan studied economics at Macalester College. International Relations at the Graduate Institute Geneva. And management at MIT. Annan joined the UN in 1962, working for the World Health Organization’s Geneva office. He went on to work in several capacities at the UN Headquarters including serving as the Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping between March 1992 and December 1996.
He was appointed the Secretary-General on 13th of December, 1996 by the Security Council. And, later confirmed by the General Assembly, making him the first office holder to be elected from the UN staff itself. He was re-elected for a second term in 2001, and was succeeded as Secretary-General by Ban Ki-moon on the 1st of January, 2007.
As the Secretary-General, Annan reformed the UN bureaucracy; worked to combat HIV/AIDS, especially in Africa; and launched the UN Global Compact. He was criticized for not expanding the Security Council and faced calls for his resignation after an investigation into the Oil-for-Food Program. But, was largely exonerated of personal corruption. After the end of his term as UN Secretary-General, he founded the Kofi Annan Foundation in 2007, to work on international development. In 2012, Annan was the UN–Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria, to help find a resolution to the ongoing conflict there.
Annan quit after becoming frustrated with the UN’s lack of progress with regards to conflict resolution. In September of 2016, Annan was appointed to lead a UN commission to investigate the Rohingya crisis. He died in 2018, and was given a state funeral.