Brigi Rafini (born 7 April 1953) is a Nigerien politician who has been Prime Minister of Niger since 2011. A native of Iférouane in Agadez Region and an ethnic Tuareg, Rafini was Minister of Agriculture in the late 1980s and Fourth Vice-President of the National Assembly of Niger from 2004 to 2009. He was appointed as Prime Minister after Mahamadou Issoufou took office as President on 7 April 2011.

Brigi Rafini was born in 1953 at Iférouane in Agadez Region, part of the Colony of Niger in French West Africa. Rafini attended primary and secondary school in Iférouane and Agadez. From 1971 to 1974 he attended the National School of Administration (ENA) in Niamey, returning for advanced study from 1978 to 1981. In 1983 he spent a year at the French International Institute of Public Administration (IIAP) in Paris. He returned to Paris a decade later, to the French National School of Administration (ENA) from 1994 to 1995.

Brigi Rafini, as a civil administrator, minister, and office holder, has represented four different political parties since the 1980s. He was a member of the National Movement for the Development of Society (MNSD) during the time it was the unitary party (1989-1991), left to join the breakaway faction that became the Nigerien Alliance for Democracy and Progress (ANDP) during the democratic Third Republic (1993-1996), and helped form the ruling Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP-Jama'a) party during the presidency of Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara (1996-1999). He served as a parliamentarian and assembly officer under the RDP in opposition during the Fifth Republic (1999-2009). He has since been reported to have formally joined the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS), elected to power in 2011.

Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ (born 26 February 1950) was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand serving three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008, making her the fifth longest serving person to hold that office. She has been Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the third-highest UN position, since 2009.

Born in and raised just south of Hamilton, Clark graduated from the University of Auckland in 1974 and became political in her teenage years, involving herself in the New Zealand Labour Party from a young age. A junior lecturer at the University in the early 1970s, Clark entered local politics in 1974 in Auckland but was not elected to any position. Returning to lecturing at University after studying abroad, she successfully ran as a Member of Parliament for the Mount Albert electorate in 1981, a position she held until her resignation in 2009. During the 1980s and early 90s, Clark held numerous Cabinet positions in the Fourth Labour government, including Minister of Housing, Minister of Health and Minister of Conservation. She would hold the position of Deputy Prime Minister for a year.