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Monique Barbut, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility, and the GEF staff join the secretariat of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in mourning the loss of a highly respected colleague and dear friend, Ms. Marie Aminata Khan, of the CBD. Marie passed away in Johannesburg on December 12, 2011, at the age of 47. For more than 17 years of her professional career, Marie worked with the United Nations, serving at U.N. headquarters in New York, the U.N. Development Programme and the GEF Small Grants Programme, and, since 2006, in Montreal with the U.N. Environment Programme’s Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. In the latter assignment, Marie served as Program Officer for Gender, where she pioneered the recently adopted CBD program of work on gender. In this capacity Marie worked closely with the U.N. Conventions on Climate Change and Desertification and the GEF. Her friends and colleagues at the GEF will remember Marie as a highly competent and dedicated colleague, as well as a very caring, lively, and good-natured friend. She will be sorely missed. (see official message from CBD here: www.cbd.int)
Many of GEFSEC staff members who had the good fortune to work with Marie express some of their memories below in words and pictures.
Statement of Monique Barbut, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility: "I was very saddened to learn of the passing of Marie Khan of the Convention on Biodiversity. Marie was a trusted and beloved colleague of the staff of the Global Environment Facility, and a personal friend of mine. All of us at the GEF send our prayers and condolences to Marie's colleagues at CBD and to her family."
Personal notes from GEFSEC staff:
"Marie was an instant inspiration from the day I first met her, and she kept inspiring me every time we had an exchange. We even started dreaming up ideas for our home country Sierra Leone. Her understanding of gender policy issues in environment and development were unrivaled. She will be missed dearly. May her soul Rest in Perfect Peace"
- Mohamed Imam Bakarr
“I knew Marie for the last decade through her career at UNEP and at the CBD Secretariat. She was always a delight to run into and one of the constants in the GEF constellation of actors. We always updated each other on the status of our respective families and marveled at how the children seemed to experience accelerating growth. I wish her family and friends solace as they handle the loss in their lives.”
-Ramesh Ramankutty
“Marie was a very skilled communicator, she had the remarkable ability to build bridges between a number of institutions positioned across the wide spectrum of international environmental politics. I always appreciated how she managed to strike a work - life balance that was filled with joy for life itself, with passion for work and compassion for her friends. We have been waiting for her at the COP in Durban but she never made it there, and she never made it back home either, which is tragic. Her absence will be felt painfully wherever she was supposed to be in future.”
-Christian Hofer
"Marie was a very dear colleague, a wonderful human being, and a real joy to be around. It was a privilege to have known her. She will be sorely missed."
- Gustavo Alberto Fonseca
“Marie and I would see each other working at the exhibits of the large COPs and during the Assembly. I will remember her sweet even disposition, a kind soul and a good sport. She was great company. I remember I would kid her whenever she needed something from me and I would ask her "What will you give me?" That always cracked me up. I would of course help her whenever I could and I thought of her as my little sister. Marie we miss you. Wherever you are we hope you're happy.”
-Raul Rodriguez
"Marie's been a wonderful friend, whom I have known for the past decade. We worked closely together on gender and civil society issues. She always tried to reach to those whose voices were often not heard, She was a person with visiin and aspiration. I will truly miss her kind and warm smiles..."
- Yoko Watanabe
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Photo: Marie Khan with the GEFSEC delegation to the UNCCD COP 10 in October 2011, Changwon, Korea.