New York – Monica Geingos, Namibian entrepreneur, lawyer, and former First Lady, attended a full-day meeting of the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics on 19 September at Columbia University in New York. The session ran alongside the United Nations General Assembly.
Geingos, who served as Namibia’s Third First Lady from 2015 until her husband’s passing in 2024, joined fellow co-chairs Prof Sir Michael Marmot and Prof Joseph E. Stiglitz, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, and other council members to review evidence, finalise recommendations for the upcoming report scheduled for release later this year, and develop advocacy strategies to address inequalities that worsen pandemics.
Beyond her role as First Lady, Geingos has held leadership positions on the boards of several of Namibia’s major companies and chaired the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, bringing extensive experience in governance and economic development to the discussions.
The meeting addressed access to medicines, vaccines and diagnostics, global finance and debt, human rights, community engagement, and social protection measures for pandemic preparedness. It aimed to produce actionable strategies to tackle structural inequalities that fuel health crises globally.
On 20 September, Geingos also joined the Annual Meeting of the United Nations Secretary-General’s SDG Advocates, hosted by Antonio Guterres and Amina J Mohammed. Two new advocates, Muniba Mazari and Masai Ujiri, were appointed to support efforts to advance the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
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