By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
A distinguished Nigerian, Professor Obijiofor Aginam, has upped the ante of the country by leading the world at the United Nations.
The Director General of the United Nations Education, Science, and Culture Organization (UNESCO) has just announced the appointment of Prof Aginam as the Director of UNESCO’s Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development, a UNESCO specialized education Institute located in New Delhi, India.
The Institute promotes the development of regional, sub-regional, and national institutional capacities in education for peace and sustainable development to meet the research and capacity-building needs of developing countries and countries in transition.
Among other tasks, the Director of the Institute develops strategies to strengthen cooperation in the areas of education for peace, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and Global Citizenship Education (GCED)! UNESCO is a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, and the lead agency for Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Inclusive Quality Education.
Prof Aginam, PhD, has held senior positions at the United Nations University (UNU), serving as Senior Programme Officer & Chief of International Cooperation and Development at the UN University-Institute for Sustainability and Peace at UNU headquarters in Tokyo (2007-2013).
He was Deputy-Director and Head of Governance for Global Health at the UN University-International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2013-2019).
He has been a Principal Visiting Fellow at UNU-IIGH, and Adjunct Research Professor of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Prior to UNU, Dr. Aginam was a tenured Professor of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University where he taught international law, law of international organizations, United Nations system, global governance, and human rights.
He was a Global Health Leadership Officer at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva where he worked on the revision of the International Health Regulations (IHR) in the then WHO Communicable Diseases Cluster.
He has been a fellow of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) of New York on “Global Security and Cooperation”.
Aginam served as a consultant of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on “Governance of Anti-microbial Resistance”, and trade and food safety involving field missions to Bangladesh and Laos.
He was a member of the United Nations Inter-Agency Taskforce on Non-communicable Diseases (2013-2019), and a visiting professor at the University for Peace, Costa Rica, and universities in Italy, South Africa, and Japan.
He served as a member of WHO Expert Committee to review the International Health Regulations (2022-2023) appointed by the Director-General of WHO.
He is currently serving as a member of the Expert Advisory Group on the WHO Traditional Medicine Summit.
Aginam holds a PhD in Law from University of British Columbia.
He is the author/editor of Global Health Governance: International Law and Public Health in a Divided World; Humanizing Our Global Order, and other publications on global governance, international law, human rights, diplomacy, UN system, and sustainable development.
Prof Aginam distinguished himself on the Global Committee of Experts convened by the Director-General of the World Health Organization to review the International Health Regulations, WHO’s regulatory framework for the prevention, detection and control of pandemic diseases that constitute public health emergency of international concern.
Aginam worked with 19 other global experts in the Review in accordance with the WHO Regulations for Expert Advisory Panels and Committees.
The sole purpose of the Review Committee was to provide technical recommendations to the Director-General on amendments proposed by WHO member states to the International Health Regulations as decided by the World Health Assembly, the highest policy making organ of the WHO.
Aginam was also appointed to serve on the WHO Roster of Experts who could be called upon to advise the Director-General of WHO on when to declare a pandemic a public health emergency of international concern.
A holder of PhD in International Law and Global Health Governance from the University of British Columbia, Canada, Aginam had served as Deputy Director & Head of Governance for Global Health at the United Nations University-International Institute for Global Health in Kuala Lumpur.
He is now a Principal Visiting Fellow of the institute.
He was a Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations University headquarters, Tokyo from 2007 to 2013.
He served as a Global Health Officer at the WHO headquarters in Geneva from 1999 to 2001, and was a fellow of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) of New York as well as serving on the expert advisory panels of FAO on food safety, trade and investment involving field missions to Bangladesh and Laos, and the United Nations Inter-agency Taskforce on Non-communicable Diseases (2014-2019).
He has been a visiting professor at the University for Peace, Costa Rica, and universities in Italy, South Africa, and Japan.
He is on the editorial board of Global Health Governance: The Scholarly Journal for the New Health Security Paradigm.
Aginam is the author/editor of Global Health Governance: International Law and Public Health in a Divided World; Humanizing Our Global Order, and other publications on global governance, international law, human rights, diplomacy, UN system, and sustainable development.
A personable and prodigious scholar, he has contributed authoritative essays to many global journals and books.
A native of Akulu, Isuofia, in Aguata LGA of Anambra State, Aginam is married with children.
Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is the author of God of Poetry
