Erik Solheim is a Norwegian diplomat and former politician. He served in the Norwegian government from 2005 to 2012 as Minister of International Development and Minister of the Environment, and as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme from 2016 to 2018. Solheim is a member of the Green Party. Erik Solheim has 4 children from two marriages.

The Minister of International Development is a councillor of state and the chief of the international development portfolio of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway. The ministry was responsible for the foreign service, the country's international interests and foreign policy. Most of the ministry's portfolio is subordinate to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The prime operating agency for international development is the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. The position has been held by ten people representing five parties.