The Standing Committee of the Convention on Wetlands has appointed Dr Musonda Mumba as the new Secretary General of the Convention. Dr Mumba will be the seventh Secretary General, succeeding Ms Martha Rojas Urrego who has served the Convention for the past six years.
Dr Mumba is a Zambian-born environmentalist with over 25 years of global experience in environmental management and sustainable development. She joins the Convention from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where she has served as Senior Advisor on the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, leading UNDP’s engagement as a Strategic Collaborating Partner in the Decade, and as Director for the Rome Centre for Sustainable Development, with a focus on climate change, sustainable development and nature protection.
Prior to joining UNDP, Dr Mumba worked at the global headquarters of the UN Environment Programme for 12 years in different functions, including as Head of the UNEP Terrestrial Ecosystems Programme.
She is the founder of the Network of African Women Environmentalists (NAWE) and she has received numerous accolades for her work, including being named one the 100 most influential African women. On International Women’s Day 2022, she was honoured by the Global Landscape Forum (GLF) as one of 16 women from around the world restoring the planet.
She is no stranger to the Convention on Wetlands, having worked at the Secretariat of the Convention as a Junior Professional between 1998 and 1999. She started her career at the Environmental Council of Zambia, and has held positions with WWF at its international headquarters in Switzerland, and in East Africa.
Dr Mumba holds a PhD in Wetland Hydrology and Conservation from University College London (UCL), and has published extensively in scientific journals and as a contributor to book chapters and in news media. She is an Honorary Senior Research Associate at UCL and a visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Perry World House (PWH) of University of Pennsylvania.
Dr Mumba will assume her new role on 1 October 2022.
