ExclusiveInternational Women’s Day: ‘It’s about competence’ not gender or race, says new WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed as the first African and first women director general of World Trade Organization (WTO) at the start of March
- She was speaking with former Australia prime minister Julia Gillard at the South China Morning Post’s Women of Our Time conference, which coincided with International Women’s Day
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Head of World Trade Organization and former Australian Prime Minister discuss women and leadership
New World Trade Organization (WTO) director general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said “competence” not gender or race saw the former Nigerian finance minister appointed as the first African and first women to head the troubled governing body of global trade.
“My mantra is, we can’t have business as usual in this organisation. We can’t continue to have debates about serious issues of world trade, where we need to make rules about e-commerce and the digital economy, we need to make rules about trade and climate … and I think I have the skills to bring people and members together,” said the 66-year old.
Okonjo-Iweala faces the herculean task of reviving the 164-member organisation that has been battered by rising global trade disputes, in particular the US-China trade war.
When you have all these challenges in the organisation, people do wonder, how come this is not the right moment for a woman? So there’s a bit of a glass cliff involved in it.