The World Evangelical Alliance applauds yesterday’s decision by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to appoint Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema of Tanzania as Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director for UNEP. The Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance, Archbishop Professor Dr Thomas Paul Schirrmacher (Bonn), the Director of Global Advocacy for the World Evangelical Alliance, Dr Janet E. Buckingham (Ottawa) and the Co-Directors of the WEA Sustainability Center, Dr Chris Elisara (San Diego) and Matthias K. Boehning (Bonn) heartily congratulate Elizabeth Mrema and wish her God’s blessing for her new task and responsibility.
Just recently, Dr Chris Elisara met Elizabeth Mrema in Montreal (see picture) on the sidelines of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference COP15 in her role as Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). She has held this role since 2020 and has with her committed and courageous leadership personally contributed a lot to the adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at COP15 at the end of this year.
We look forward to continued collaboration and wish to express the World Evangelical Alliance’s full support for the important work of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Of particular note is UNEP’s innovative Faith for Earth Initiative, which we, as one of the world’s major faith groups, do our utmost to support and help shape.