The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2009

FORMER U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL | ALLIANCE FOR A GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA | GHANA
Two years after ending his term as what U.S. über-diplomat Richard Holbrooke once dubbed “the best secretary-general in the history of the U.N.,” Annan has a new mission: turning Africa green. “Africa is the only region where overall food security and livelihoods are deteriorating,” he declared in 2007, vowing to create “an environmentally sustainable, uniquely African Green Revolution.” And though many a development project has tried to boost agriculture on the continent, this time the formula is different: Annan is promoting small family farms rather than trying to mimic the industrialization of the West. That will mean a push for ag-friendly policies on a continent where corrupt leaders have typically turned their attention to more lucrative resource wealth while starving a generation of African farmers. As well as leading the Green Revolution, Annan has also served as mediator in the violent aftermath of Kenya’s elections and been chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s leadership prize committee. One would expect nothing less from a man once dubbed a “rock star of international relations.”