Kofi Annan Net Worth

What Was Kofi Annan's Net Worth?

Kofi Annan was a Ghanaian diplomat who had a net worth of $5 million at the time of his death in 2018. Kofi Annan served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations. The first Secretary-General to be elected from the ranks of United Nations staff, he began his term on January 1, 1997. Annan's priorities as Secretary-General were to revitalize the United Nations through a comprehensive program of reform; to strengthen the Organization's traditional work in the areas of development and the maintenance of international peace and security; to encourage and advocate human rights, the rule of law and the universal values of equality, tolerance and human dignity found in the United Nations Charter; and to restore public confidence in the Organization by reaching out to new partners and, in his words, by "bringing the United Nations closer to the people."

Annan and the United Nations were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world." Kofi was the Chairman of The Elders, a group founded by Nelson Mandela. From February to August 2012, Annan was the UN–Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria, helping find a resolution to the ongoing conflict there. He quit after becoming frustrated with the UN's lack of progress with regard to resolving the conflict, stating "…when the Syrian people desperately need action, there continues to be finger-pointing and name-calling in the Security Council." Kofi Annan died on August 18, 2018, at the age of 80.

Early Life

Kofi Annan was born Kofi Atta Annan on April 8, 1938, in Kumasi, Gold Coast (now Ghana). He had a twin sister named Efua Atta, who died in the early 1990s; in the Akan language, "Atta" means "twin." Kofi came from a Fante aristocratic family, and his grandfathers and uncle served as Fante paramount chiefs. His brother Kobina became Ghana's ambassador to Morocco. Annan attended the Methodist all-boys boarding school Mfantsipim in Cape Coast, and there, he learned that "suffering anywhere, concerns people everywhere." After graduating from Mfantsipim in 1957, he enrolled at the Kumasi College of Science and Technology to study economics. Kofi earned a Ford Foundation grant, which made it possible for him to complete his undergraduate economics studies in the United States at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He graduated in 1961, then he attended Switzerland's Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, where he earned a diplôme d'études approfondies (DEA) in International Relations in 1962. After working for a few years, Annan entered the Sloan Fellows program at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Massachusetts, earning a master's degree in management.

Career

In 1962, Annan took a job as a budget officer for the United Nations agency, the World Health Organization. From 1974 to 1976, he managed the state-owned Ghana Tourist Development Company, and in 1980, he was named the UN High Commission for Refugees' head of personnel. In the early '80s, Kofi sat on the International School of Geneva's Governing Board. In New York, he became the UN Secretariat's director of administrative management services in 1983. Four years later, Annan was appointed the UN system's assistant secretary-general for Human Resources Management, and in 1990, he began serving as the Assistant Secretary-General for Program Planning, Budget and Finance, and Control. In 1992, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali created the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and Kofi was named Deputy to Under-Secretary-General Marrack Goulding. In March 1993, he replaced Goulding, and on August 29, 1995, when Boutros Boutros-Ghali couldn't be reached while traveling by plane, Annan told UN officials to "relinquish for a limited period of time their authority to veto air strikes in Bosnia." This made it possible for NATO forces to conduct Operation Deliberate Force.

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In 1996, Boutros Boutros-Ghali ran for a second term unopposed, but after the United States vetoed him, he suspended his candidacy. Annan was the top choice to replace him, and though France vetoed him four times, they eventually abstained. Kofi was voted in by the General Assembly, and he began his first term on New Year's Day in 1997. In June 2001, the Security Council recommended that Annan serve a second term, and they approved his reappointment two days later. He was the Secretary-General of the United Nations until December 31, 2006, and during his time in office, Kofi and the UN won the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world." In 2007, he founded the Kofi Annan Foundation, which "works to promote better global governance and strengthen the capacities of people and countries to achieve a fairer, more secure world." In 2008, Annan became the Chancellor of the University of Ghana, a position he held for a decade. In February 2012, he was appointed a special envoy to Syria to help end the country's civil war. He resigned six months later, stating, "As an envoy, I can't want peace more than the protagonists, more than the security council or the international community, for that matter. My central concern from the start has been the welfare of the Syrian people. Syria can still be saved from the worst calamity – if the international community can show the courage and leadership necessary to compromise on their partial interests for the sake of the Syrian people."

Personal Life

In the mid-1960s, Kofi married Titi Alakija, who came from an aristocratic Nigerian family. They welcomed two children, Ama and Kojo, before divorcing in 1983. The following year, Annan married Swedish lawyer Nane Lagergren, who worked at the UN and was the half-niece of diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Kofi spoke French, English, and Akan fluently, as well as some other African languages and Kru languages. In 2002, he became the first person to be made a Busumuru of the Ashanti people (also known as a Ghanaian chief). Annan received honorary degrees from numerous colleges and universities, including the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (Honorary Doctor of Science, 1998), National University of Ireland (Doctor of Law, 1999), University of Notre Dame (Doctor of Letters, 2000), Brown University (Doctor of Laws, 2001), University of Ottawa (Doctor of the University Degree, 2004), University of Tokyo (Honorary Doctorate, 2006), Georgetown University (Doctor of Humane Letters, 2006), and King's College London (Doctor of Laws, 2008). In 2012, he published the memoir "Interventions: A Life in War and Peace," which he co-wrote with Nader Mousavizadeh.

Death

On August 18, 2018, Annan passed away in Bern, Switzerland, after a short illness at the age of 80. After the news was announced, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that Kofi was "a guiding force for good" and "a global champion for peace." Annan's body was returned to Ghana in a ceremony at Accra's Kotoka International Airport on September 10th, and a blue UN flag was draped over his coffin. Kofi's body lay in state for two days, then a state funeral took place on September 13th at the Accra International Conference Centre. Political leaders from all over the world attended the ceremony, and after the funeral service, a private burial was held at the Military Cemetery at Burma Camp. Annan was given full military honors and a 17-gun salute.

Honors

In 1999, Annan received the Honorary Silver Medal of Jan Masaryk and threw the ceremonial first pitch at Game 3 of the World Series. In 2000, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Star of Ghana and received a Grand Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland as well as a Lifetime Achievement award from the Kora All Africa Music Awards. Next, Kofi was honored with a Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Star of Romania (2001), The Nobel Peace Prize (2001), a Profiles in Courage Award (2002), The American Whig-Cliosophic Society James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service (2002), and the Max Schmidheiny Foundation at the University of St. Gallen's Freedom Prize (2003), and he was made a Knight Commander of the Most Courteous Order of Lesotho (2002) and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2003). He received a Freedom Medal in 2004, followed by a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005.

In 2006, Annan was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion and won the IPS International Achievement Award and Olof Palme Prize. In 2007, he earned a Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash for Services to the Republic of Austria, the People in Europe Award of Verlagsgruppe Passau, the MacArthur Award for International Justice, and the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe, and Queen Elizabeth II appointed him an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George. Kofi later received a Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2008), Harvard University Honors Prize (2008), Gottlieb Duttweiler Award (2008), Peace of Westphalia Prize (2008), Gothenburg Award (2011), and Confucius Peace Prize (2012), and in 2013, he was made a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.

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