Cairo - New York: Europe and the Arabs

The United Nations Secretary-General announced the appointment of Yasmine Fouad (Egypt) as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Ms. Fouad has served as Egypt's Minister of Environment since 2018.
Yasmine Fouad's appointment followed consultations with the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD. She succeeds Fouad Ibrahim Thiaw (Mauritania), to whom the Secretary-General is deeply grateful for his dedicated service and outstanding commitment to the Organization. According to the UN Daily News Bulletin, a copy of which we received this Friday morning, Ms. Fouad is an expert in environmental diplomacy, with over 25 years of experience in environmental governance, global environmental issues, and international climate diplomacy, as well as a proven track record in designing and implementing institutional and systemic reforms to achieve sustainable development.
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that Ms. Yasmine Fouad has played a pivotal role in multilateral environmental processes globally, serving as President of the 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Envoy to COP27, in addition to other prominent assignments at the regional and international levels.
As a visiting scholar at Columbia University, Ms. Fouad contributed to the Earth Institute, where she helped design the Center of Excellence for Climate Change Adaptation in Egypt. She holds a PhD in Euro-Mediterranean Studies from Cairo University and a Master's degree in Environmental Sciences from Ain Shams University.