African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group has announced that AIbrahima Cheikh Diong will be taking over their leadership, following his unanimous election by the ARC Conference of Parties earlier in June 2020.
He will serve as the ARC Group’s Director General in the capacity of United Nations Assistant Secretary General for an initial term of four years.
Diong, who has over 30 years of professional leadership and management experience in Africa, the United States, Europe and Asia, stated that he is humbled and eager to bring his versatile experience to serve Africa in this capacity.
Diong commented on his new position: “I fully comprehend and appreciate the incredible mission and outstanding work of ARC. With my professional and highly efficient colleagues, we will work relentlessly to not only consolidate the impact of ARC’s work in our current 34 member countries, but to also to scale up our disaster risk management interventions to the rest of the African continent,
“I celebrate a great human being, Mohamed Beavogui, who is always at the service of Africa, forthe excellent job he has done at both nurturing and developing ARC into a viable and recognised continental disaster risk management mechanism,
“Never in my 30-year career have I experienced such a smooth, efficient, and highly professional handover process. This is a great example of a smooth leadership transfer in Africa.”
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Chairperson of the ARC Agency said: “It is reassuring to know that the ARC Group is set for good continuity and even greater strides in the delivery of its continental mission,
“We have gone from providing disaster risk coverage to a handful of countries at the beginning, to the impressive number of countries we have in our pool today. We have also achieved remarkable governance reforms resulting in greater recognition of our work by various stakeholders. Ibrahima is an astute statesman and well-rounded professional; and I speak for the Group that we could not have been blessed with a more accomplished African to take this institution forward.”
Diong’s experience cuts across multiple sectors, ranging from corporate and investment to private sector development and infrastructure development.
