Austrian president congratulates Ghada Waly on assuming new post

CAIRO – 5 February 2020: President of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen welcomed Wednesday Ghada Waly, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and congratulated her on assuming her new position.

Waly and Bellen discussed the mutual collaboration between his country and the UNODC, stressing that Austria is a country with multilateral diplomacy.

Wali, who served as Egypt’s Minister of Social Solidarity from March 2014 until December 2019, was appointed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to succeed Yury Fedotov of Russia.

Waly brings to the position over thirty years of experience in the field of sustainable development, poverty reduction and social protection, and women and youth empowerment, the UN wrote on its website.

Since she took post as social solidarity minister, Waly has developed the national anti-drug strategy, led a nation-wide drug awareness and prevention campaign among youth and pioneered innovative programmes to rehabilitate and reintegrate persons with substance use disorders into society.

In her current role, she also serves as coordinator of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Social Justice, chairperson of the National Centre for Social and Criminological Research and chairs the Executive Council of Arab Ministers of Social Affairs in the League of Arab States.

Her previous leadership positions include managing director of the Social Fund for Development (2011‑2014), assistant resident representative at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Egypt (2004‑2011) and program director of CARE International in Egypt (2000‑2004).

Waly holds a master’s degree in humanities and a bachelor of arts in foreign languages and literature from the Colorado State University. She is fluent in Arabic, English and French and has a working knowledge of Spanish.