He shares the Nobel Peace Prize with figures such as former US President Barack Obama and the great South African politician Nelson Mandela. Let’s find out who Kofi Annan is.
Who was Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan (Kumasi, 8 April 1938 – Bern, 18 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat.
He studied at the Methodist college, current of Protestantism, of Cape Coast and graduated in conjunction with the independence of Ghana from Great Britain.
Subsequently study economics at university and then completed the course in Minnesota thanks to a scholarship.
A period in Geneva followed where he attended theUniversity Institute of Higher International Studies preceding the Master of Science in Managament at the well-known MIT.
The beginning of the journey within the UN
With a rich academic career he managed to obtain a series of positions at the WHO, World Health Organization. After a short period in the service of his country of origin as a director of tourism he returns to work in the best known organs in the world.
In fact, he first obtained the role of Assistant Secretary General, then of Human Resources Management and Security Coordinator and finally of Program Planning, Budget and Finane and Controller and Peacekeeping Operations at theUnited Nations Organization.
With a ten-year journey at the UN it becomes Undersecretary General having to move in difficult fields such as the negotiations with Iraq for the release of some employees of the body for which he works who were stuck in the country before the war.
The Nobel Peace Prize and Withdrawal
In 1996 he was chosen as United Nations Secretary-General becoming the first black African to achieve such a role. During his mandate, he is committed to fronts related to collective security but also to social issues such as peace and human rights.
The commitment shown led him in 2001 to obtain the Nobel Peace Prize “For a better organized world with more peace”. In 2006 he succeeded but his work in international relations did not end here. In fact, he was appointed special envoy to Syria in 2012, but Annan refused the post.