UNITED NATIONS GIRLS EDUCATION INITIATIVE

Hilde F. Johnson is a Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Ms.Johnson was the Minister of International Development of Norway between 2001 and 2005, and Minister of Human Rights and Development from 1997 to 2000, within the two administrations of Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. She was Member of Parliament in 1993-2001, serving in the Committees on Energy and Environment and Extended Foreign Relations when she was not in Government.

Before taking up her Cabinet post, Johnson was a member of the Norwegian parliament for five years, during which she sat on the Enlarged Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs. Ms. Johnson is Co-chair of the Global Coalition for Africa. She has been a key facilitator in the Sudan peace negotiations, and has chaired the Sudan Committee of the IGAD Partners Forum.

Ms. Johnson has also served on advisory groups in the World Bank, and is the founder of the Utstein Group, a consultation group of six like minded donor countries. In 2003, she was awarded the "Commitment to Development Award" by the Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy in Washington, D.C.

Hilde F. Johnson was born in 1963 in Arusha, Tanzania. She holds a graduate degree in anthropology from the University of Oslo.