Macharia Kamau

Early life

He was born on 3 March 1958. He holds postgraduate qualifications from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts with specializations in Macro-economic policy management and in social policy and planning.

Career

Ambassador Kamau has served as the Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations since 2010 and previously in Nairobi (2009-2010). He has also served on UN special assignments, and was President of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Board (2014); President of UN Forests Forum (2011-2012), Co-Chair of the Ad hoc Working Group on Forest Financing (2010-2011), Vice President of the 67th Session of the UN General Assembly, Co-Chair of the General Assembly Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (2012-2014) and as co-facilitator of the post 2015 Development Agenda (2014-2015). He is currently Chairperson of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission.

Ambassador Kamau has had a long career in the service of the United Nations, including with UNICEF and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Africa, the Caribbean and New York.

In May 2016 United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Kamau and Mary Robinson as Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on El Niño and Climate, tasking them with calling attention to the 60 million people around the world affected by severe El Niño-linked drought and climate impacts, and mobilising an integrated response that takes preparedness for future climatic events into account

President of the United Nations General Assembly Peter Thomson appointed Kamau as the Special Envoy on Sustainable Development Goals Implementation and Climate Change, in order to motivate actors at global, regional, national, and community levels.

Political Views

Kamau views that peace can not be had when countries do not respect each other's borders and institutions.