Photo Credit: (Christopher Swope), Citiscope
On December 20, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres informed the United Nations General Assembly of his intention to appoint Dato’ Maimunah Mohd Sharif as the next Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). The decision came after a series of consultations with the Chairpersons of the regional groups of UN’s Member States.
Ms. Sharif is the current Mayor of Penang City Council in Malaysia. Before becoming the local chief executive of Penang City, she was the first female president of the Municipal Council of Seberang Perai. She led Seberang Perai to attain its vision, “To make Seberang Perai cleaner, beautiful, comfortable place to stay, work, investment and tourist attraction by 2018”; having been able to produce its first Tourist Map, Heritage Trail, and Coffee Table Book.
A staunch advocate of inclusive planning, development, and administration, she uses the Gender Responsive Participatory Budgeting process in preparation of the city’s annual budget. She has also formed a committee tasked to integrate gender perspectives into the local governance process.
She is a prolific figure in international and local conferences and has been awarded recognition by the Penang State Government, Malaysian Government, and international organizations. The Malaysian Institute of Planners lauded her as Planner of the Year in 2014. In the same year, she was given the award, Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri, bestowing the title Dato.
Dato’ Maimunah Mohd Sharif during ICLEI SEAS' session at the ASEAN Mayors Forum 2017 as she talked about lessons and experience in transforming Seberang Perai into a low carbon town.
Her involvement with ICLEI sprawls many years; in 2014 she was elected as one of the members of the Regional Executive Committee of ICLEI Southeast Asia. On December of the same year, she was voted as the region’s representative to ICLEI’s Global Executive Committee.
On October 18, 2016, citing her work on Seberang Perai’s sustainable planning, she received the Global Human Settlements Outstanding Contribution Award—presented by the Global Forum on Human Settlements on Quito, Ecuador during the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III).
