Tanzanian lands top UN position

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema

Dar es Salaam. A Tanzanian, Ms Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, has been appointed acting executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat with effect from December 1, 2019.

CDB is based in Monteal, Canada and the appointment was made by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. Ms Mrema’s appointment comes after the resignation of Cristiana Pasca Palmer, a Romanian national, for health reasons. A statement, posted on the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) website, says the appointment represents a dramatic step forward in the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources. Before her appointment, Ms Mrema was the director of the Law Division at the UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya where she has worked for over two decades. Her responsibilities in UNEP’s Law Division included coordination of capacity building, development, implementation as well as compliance and enforcement of environmental law and the multilateral environmental conventions. She also led work-related to international environmental governance.

She is a lawyer by profession and career diplomat with LLB (Hons) from the University of Dar es Salaam, LLM from Dalhousie University, Canada and Postgraduate Diploma in International Relations and Diplomacy (Summa Cum Laude) from the Centre of Foreign Relations and Diplomacy in Dar es Salaam. Ms Mrema has published several articles related to international environmental law, compliance and enforcement of conventions and developed, among others, a number of multilateral environmental agreements negotiation tools, handbooks and guidelines currently used by UNEP in its capacity-building programmes.

Prior to joining the Law Division in June 2014, she was the Deputy Director of the Ecosystems Division, in charge of coordination, operations and programme delivery from 2012 and for one year, also served as Acting Director to the same Division. She received in 2004 the first-ever UNEP-wide Best Manager of the Year Award, titled the UNEP Baobab Staff Award, for exceptional performance and dedication towards achieving the goals of UNEP.

In 2009, she was appointed as the executive secretary of the UNEP/Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).

Before joining UNEP, Ms Mrema worked with the ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Tanzania and left as a Counsellor/Senior Legal Counsel. During her time with the ministry, she was also a lecturer in Public International Law and Conference Diplomacy at Tanzania’s Centre for Foreign Relations and Diplomacy.