Amina J Mohommed The 2017 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture will be delivered by the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J Mohammed, in Cape Town on 25 November 2017. Born in 1961, and educated Nigeria and the UK, Mohammed is married with six children. She was appointed UN Deputy Secretary-General on 1 January 2017. Previously, as special adviser to former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Mohammed was instrumental in the UN’s setting of its Sustainable Development Goals. This set of 17 goals, aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring global peace and prosperity by 2030, was unanimously adopted by 193 UN member states on 25 September 2015. Before joining the UN, Mohammed worked for three successive administrations in Nigeria, serving as Special Advisor on the Millennium Development Goals, providing advice on issues including poverty, public sector reform and sustainable development, and coordinating poverty reduction interventions. Mohammed was also a Minister of Environment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, where she steers the country’s efforts to protect the natural environment and conserve resources for sustainable development. She is also an Adjunct Professor in Development Practice at Columbia University, and serves on numerous international advisory boards and panels, including the UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Post-2015 Development Agenda, the Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development, the Global Development Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the UN Secretary-General’s Global Sustainability Panel, the African Women’s Millennium Initiative, Girl Effect and the ActionAid International Right to Education Project. Info from www.nelsonmandela.org and www.un.org.