Hilde Frafjord Johnson, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF

Hilde F. Johnson is a Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Ms.Johnson was the Minister of International Development of Norway between 2001 and 2005, and Minister of Human Rights and Development from 1997 to 2000, within the two administrations of Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. She was Member of Parliament in 1993-2001, serving in the Committees on Energy and Environment and Extended Foreign Relations when she was not in Government.

She has been actively involved in the efforts to build coalitions for reform, both of the UN, the policies of the Bretton Woods Institutions and bilateral aid. In 1998 Ms. Johnson formed the Utstein-group, a group of key likeminded development ministers from the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Norway (later also Sweden and Canada). They worked closely with leaders in the G8-countries, the top leadership of multilateral organizations, the UN, UN funds and programmes, WTO and the BWIs, and leaders of developing countries, to bring about better pro-poor development policies.

Ms. Johnson was key to engineering and implementing a major structural reform of the administration of the Norwegian development aid, aimed at enhancing the efficiency of the aid administration in terms of its contribution to poverty reduction. The Focus of the reform was the need for better coherence between policy, strategy and implementation and for a clearer division of labour between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (Norad) and the embassies. Throughout her periods as Minister for International Development, she has been a strong advocate for poverty eradication, better delivery in development and the Millennium Development Goals.

Ms. Johnson was the chairman of the Sudan Committee of the IGAD Partners Forum, formed to support the peace process between the Government of Sudan and the SPLM/A, where she played a central role in support of the Sudan peace process towards the peace-agreement of 2005. For her exemplary efforts and commitment, she was awarded the Order of the two Niles, First Class by the Government of Sudan.

Ms. Johnson is currently the Senior Adviser to the President of the African Development Bank.