Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa water, Sanitation Mar- Apr 2015 Vol.10 No.2 | Page 31

People
services to medical microbiology, is currently Professor
of Clinical Microbiology at the University of Cambridge.
She has already started work with the Bloomsbury
Research Institute and will take up her post full-time from
September.
Professor Peacock is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical
Sciences, an Honorary Faculty Member at the Wellcome
Trust Sanger Institute, and deputy chair of the Medical
Research Council Infection and Immunity Board.
Inger Andersen takes up her duties as IUCN
Director General
Previously Vice President for the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA) at the World Bank, Ms Andersen
was responsible for the Bank’s strategy and operations
throughout the region.
She succeeds Julia MartonLefèvre who served as
IUCN Director General
since January 2007.
A Danish national, Ms
Andersen began her career
working on desertification
and dryland issues in
Sudan, and with the UN
Inger Andersen, IUCN Director Sudano-Sahelian Office
in New York. With the
establishment of the Global Environment Facility in 1992,
she was asked to serve as the Arab Region Coordinator for
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a
position she held until 1999 when she moved to the World
Bank.
At the World Bank, Ms Andersen worked primarily
on water, environment and sustainable development,
with special focus on the Africa and MENA Regions.
In 2010, she was named Vice President for Sustainable
Development, overseeing the technical quality of the
Bank’s portfolio and leading the Sustainable Development
Network. In view of her long association with the Middle
East, Ms Andersen was requested to take on the Vice
President position for the region at the onset of the
Arab Spring the following year. Ms Andersen was also
appointed Head of the CGIAR Fund Council in 2010.
“I am extremely pleased and honoured to be taking on the
role of Director General at IUCN,” said Ms Andersen.
“As an indispensable source of fact-based intelligence
for the conservation community and beyond, IUCN is
uniquely positioned to help the world tackle this century’s
vast environmental and societal challenges. I am delighted
to be leading those efforts.”

Madonna Raises $5.5 million for Malawi Flood
Victims
Pop Icon Madonna
has managed to raise
$5.5 million (MK2.4
billion) to support
people displaced
by the devastating
floods which
continue to wreak
havoc across Malawi.
The pop queen,
who was joined by
Photo: Madonna/Facebook
rapper Gucci Mane,
raised the funds from
ticket sales and live auction during an event dubbed A
Night to Benefit Malawi and UNICEF held in New York.
According to a statement from Madonna’s Raising Malawi,
the proceeds will be split equally between UNICEF and
Madonna’s organization Raising Malawi.
IPCC Chief Resigns After Sexual Harassment
Accusations
Interim chairman takes over
as longtime head Rajendra
Pachauri faces sexual
harassment accusations
from several former
employees
The United Nations’
climate science body, which
is currently meeting in
Nairobi, Kenya, will now be
headed temporarily by Vice
Chairman Ismail El Gizouli.

Rajendra Pachauri,

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), resigned on February 24
following accusations of sexual harassment by a former
employee at the energy think tank he heads in New Delhi.
The United Nations’ climate science body, which was then
meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, was headed temporarily by
Vice Chairman Ismail El Gizouli.
Pachauri, 74, did not travel to Nairobi that week for
the IPCC meeting due to a police investigation into
a complaint filed Feb. 13 by a 29-year-old employee.
According to the complaint, she accused Pachauri of
sending text messages and emails since September 2013
that were inappropriate (ClimateWire, Feb. 19).

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