Amina J. Mohammed Quotes

And as such, each thread matters, each thread makes the fabric stronger, not weaker. So the less threads we have, that we leave behind, the weaker that fabric. And I think if you say that to people, then they see themselves in the fabric. It’s not you against us.

I think people like the Arch and Madiba [Nelson Mandela] always recognized their failings. And so people didn’t have a chance to throw any stones at them. What came out was ‘okay, I’m not perfect, I’m not God, but these are the things that I believe in, these are the things that I will fight for’. So as human beings, what we look to is what they stood for. And I’m not sure today that we give so much grace to leaders. And I think that we have to think and listen to what the leader is saying and doing, rather than judge what’s in the closet.

I think in the short term, as you will have seen in the last six months, the African Union (AU) and the United Nations have defined their frameworks for peace and security. Again, this is to bring more coordination and coherence, a more efficient way of looking at the results, and get them around the continent. What is important here is to align the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the UN’s Agenda 2030. So, in the short term, we are getting the partnership frameworks right especially on roles and responsibilities.

And there has to be a huge amount of courage that what you’re doing is shaping the future. I mean, concretely, shaping that future for your people with what you know is the right thing.

You’re not just looking at capacities and skills to connect to the outside world without understanding anything about who you are, and the part that you play in your own ecosystem.

I think men have to recognise that in every home, the woman has a right to participate in the economy and has the abilities to contribute to that. But that should not be done to the detriment of the home, and it should be a shared responsibility.

The response to that is so complicated; it’s not a neat number, it’s not a neat set of targets. I think that, first, we should acknowledge that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were a really good effort. It was the first time the world came together to set a number of integrated issues together. We might not have achieved all of them everywhere but we knew that it did work and therefore, what we did was take it a step further.

I do this because I was part of an education system that did this, although I have to say that we had a broader education. But as years have gone on, that curriculum has become loaded. It has lost its core. And I think people are struggling with who they are, and who they are is such a contradiction to people who want us to join this global family.

We learn to have pride and independence of one’s being, how that contributes from the inside out.

I think early childcare is not in a classroom, but very much in Africa today, it needs to start with adult literacy and mothers because as African women, and in our cultures

I think it starts first of all for from where we create access to education, and the curriculum that we put in place for it. And we talk about the scientific basis that we find we must have in early childcare. I think early childcare is not in a classroom, but very much in Africa today, it needs to start with adult literacy and mothers because as African women, and in our cultures – our children are with us until they’re three, attached at the hip, if you would.

The UNGA theme, tried first of all, put the emphasis on the need to bring the resources and the political commitment. We are going to discuss the problems we have and addressing their root causes, but at the same time, we have to find the resources and financing to put into development and unless we ratchet that up, then we will be losing the gains of peace as quickly as we are putting our resources at the problem.

So I think that we need to find creative ways of bringing education into the home, and not taking kids to institutions at that early age. So early childhood education, for me, is one transformation that happens together with a mother [for] that bonding in the community, where we say that Africa is brought up by a village and not by a couple of people. So, really bringing that community learning into early child care.

I think essentially, we’ve got to have a few conversations with ourselves. And there has to be a huge amount of courage that what you’re doing is shaping the future. I mean, concretely, shaping that future for your people with what you know is the right thing.

What I’m trying to say is that as we learn to have pride and independence of one’s being, how that contributes from the inside out. So you’re not just looking at capacities and skills to connect to the outside world without understanding anything about who you are, and the part that you play in your own ecosystem.