PENANG Island City Council mayor Maimunah Mohd Sharif is resigning from her post to serve as executive director of the Nairobi-based United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).

Maimunah, who was appointed mayor in the middle of the year, will end her brief tenure on December 31 before starting her new post at the UN next year.

She will replace Dr Joan Clos of Spain. The date of her swearing-in at the UN headquarters in New York has yet to be fixed.

A town planner by training, who previously served six years as Seberang Prai Municipal Council’s first woman president, Maimunah said she was formally notified of her appointment via email after it was endorsed by the UN General Assembly at 4am today (3pm yesterday New York time).

“Malaysia has been a member nation of UN-Habitat since last year,” she told a press conference at Komtar today.

“I will be tasked with monitoring the operations of UN-Habitat offices around the world to ensure its programmes and policies are executed.”

UN-Habitat is an active body with 2,400 permanent and contract staff in Nairobi and around the world that deals with human settlement programmes.

It has three regional offices – in Africa, Japan and Brazil – and liaison and information offices around the globe.

Maimunah said her next job would be to promote and implement the UN’s sustainable goals, as well as the new urban agenda in all cities.

“Now, we have around 3.7 billion people living in cities. By 2050, the population in cities will grow to seven billion. We have to see how we can translate these goals into action at the local level.”

In October last year, Maimunah was awarded the Global Human Settlements Outstanding Contribution Award by the Global Forum on Human Settlements in Quito, Ecuador, at the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, for her contributions to sustainable planning in Seberang Prai.

She thanked the state government and the two councils where she had worked for giving her the opportunities to attend international conferences and forums.

She said in her new post, she would explore opportunities to introduce UN programmes in Penang.

“Perhaps, my work was noticed (by the UN) there. I am thankful for the state government’s support.

“I do feel sad about leaving, but Kenya is not that far from Penang, now that there is social media. You can find me on Twitter and Facebook.”

Headhunted for the job, Maimunah is the first Asian to be appointed to the post for a four-year term, which will require her to commute between Nairobi and New York.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said Maimunah’s appointment by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was a point of pride for Penang and Malaysia, although her international secondment to the UN was “sad” for the state.

“She has informed us that she will take up the post. This is the first time Penang is seconding its state officer to the UN.

“We are very reluctant to let one of our finest officers go, but this is a huge appointment that gives Penang and Malaysia great pride and honour.

“It is not easy to land this rare appointment, and it shows that Penang has quality, world-class civil servants, who are even headhunted by the UN.”

He said the Malaysian government and the nation’s permanent representative to the UN certainly supported Maimunah’s appointment.

Local government exco Chow Kon Yeow said Maimunah’s new post at the UN would enable her to work towards bettering living conditions around the world.

“We give her our blessings and we wish her the best of luck.” – December 23, 2017.