THORAYA
AHMED OBAID BIO: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND, UNFPA
(MaximsNewsNetwork)
UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews
Network
/ 25 April 2010 - Thoraya
Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, is among the
key leaders in Global Health that are being profiled by MaximsNewsGlobalHealth as part of its launch to publish news from the United Nations, its agencies and important development organizations.
Thoraya
Ahmed Obaid was appointed as Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations
Population Fund, effective 1 January 2001, making her the first Saudi Arabian
to head a United Nations agency.
She has the rank of Under-Secretary-General
of the United Nations.
Ms.
Obaid has a long and distinguished career at the United Nations. She has
worked for the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) from
1975 to 1998, where she rose to the rank of Deputy Executive Secretary.
In
1998, she moved to UNFPA as Director of the then-Division for Arab States and
Europe, occupying that position until 2001, when she assumed her current post.
Ms.
Obaid is the first Saudi Arabian woman to receive a government scholarship to
a university in the United States, in 1963.
She has a doctorate degree in
English Literature and Cultural Anthropology from Wayne State University,
Detroit, Michigan.
Ms.
Obaid has received many awards and honours. She was ranked among the 50 Most
Powerful Arab Women by Forbes magazine in 2004.
She is also profiled
as one of 100 Muslim Builders of World Civilization and Culture in Notable
Muslims, a book published in Oxford, England, in 2006.
Throughout
her career, Ms. Obaid has championed the causes of women's and young people's
health and empowerment.
Her work focuses on supporting governments to
establish programmes to empower women and develop their capacities as citizens
with rights and responsibilities.
She has also emphasized the importance of
promoting development through a culturally sensitive approach, working within
the context of each society, and taking into consideration cultural values and
religious beliefs that shape people and affect their actions.
As UNFPA
Executive Director, she has introduced a focus on culture to the Fund's
development work, linking gender, universal values of human rights and values
of the human worth promoted by all religions and found in all cultures.
MaximsNewsGlobalHealth
is being launched this month to publish news on such Global Health issues as
hunger, HIV/AIDS, childhood mortality, maternal health, environmental health,
malaria and other diseases.
MaximsNewsGlobalHealthis publishing news from
the U.N., its agencies and important development organizations and presenting
it within the context of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).
MaximsNewsNetwork: 18 November 2009 - UNFPA: The latest edition
of the State of World Population report by the UN Population Fund
(UNFPA) shows that women bear the disproportionate burden of climate
change, but have been largely overlooked in the debate on how to address
problems of rising seas, droughts, melting glaciers and extreme weather.
The report will be launched Wednesday 18 November in London.
The 2009 edition of the State of World Population report, to be launched
on 18 November 2009 by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), shows
that women bear the disproportionate burden of climate change, but have
so far been largely overlooked in the debate about how to address
problems of rising seas, droughts, melting glaciers and extreme weather.
Poor women in poor countries are among the hardest hit by climate
change, even though they contributed the least to it, according to UNFPA
Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid.
Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA), addressing the General Assembly.
14 October 2004.
United Nations, New York. UN Photo: Mark Garten
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA), addresses a press conference on the intention
of the United States President to restore the financial support for
the programmes of her agency.27 January 2009.
United Nations, New York. UN Photo: Eskinder Debebe
Thoraya
Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA), addresses a press conference on the intention of the United
States President to restore the financial support for the programmes
of her agency. 27 January 2009. United Nations, New York. UN Photo:
Eskinder Debebe
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) speaks at the tenth Rafael M. Salas Memorial
Lecture on "The Greatest Challenge in the 21st Century: Gender
Equality in Development", at UN Headquarters in New York.
11 October 2006.
United Nations, New York. UN Photo: Marco Castro
