Niveen Al-Qabbaj who pledged to back poor, women becomes solidarity minister

CAIRO – 22 December 2019: The parliament on Sunday approved a long-awaited Cabinet reshuffle, including appointing Niveen al-Qabbaj, an advisor to the Social Solidarity Minister, to succeed Ghada Waly, who was named in November as executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).



“I promised myself to be a land for the poor and women, a sky for those with disabilities toward different abilities and right that is, sure, they deserve,” Qabbaj earlier said, when it joined the solidarity ministry, State’s Al-Ahram reported.

Qabbaj served as an assistant solidarity minister for social protection and then a deputy solidarity minister for social protection.

With 25 years of experience in the developmental fields, social protection, children protection, and strategic planning, Qabbaj, 54, who has many accomplishments in social solidarity, seems ready for her new post.

She graduated in 1987 from the Faculty of Economy and Political Science. She worked as an assistant researcher in state’s Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies from 1988 to 1990, and obtained her Master’s degree international relations in 1992 from Carleton University in Canada. She then worked as an assistant lecturer in the North American country’s University of Ottawa for two years.

Qabbaj served in many posts in international organizations, including America’s Development Foundation, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the National Council of Women of the United States.

Besides international positions, she served as an advisor of strategic planning to the secretary of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, and also an advisor in the National Population Council.

According to Al-Ahram, Qabbaj has significant accomplishments, most notably the government program “Takaful w Karama,” translated as “Solidarity and Dignity,” a social safety net program, supported directly by the Egyptian state and leadership.



She established the first committee to protect Egyptian children in Alexandria and the first network for research and assessment in Egypt which aims at enhancing policies that are based on evidence, and fostering the effectiveness and efficiency of the developmental projects to compensate the use of local resources and international aid, according to the state’s newspaper.