Former UNFPA Executive Director, UN Under-Secretary-General
Appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid served as Executive Director of UNFPA from January 2001 through December 2010, becoming the first Saudi Arabian to head a UN agency.
Ms. Obaid had a long and distinguished career at the UN: She worked for the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia 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, holding that position until 2001, when she became Executive Director.
Ms. Obaid was the first Saudi Arabian woman to receive a government scholarship to a university in the United States, in 1963. She has a doctorate in English literature and cultural anthropology from Wayne State University and a B.A. in English literature and sociology from Mills College.
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 life, Ms. Obaid has championed the causes of health and empowerment for women and young people. She has focused 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, taking into consideration cultural values and religious beliefs that shape people and their actions. As UNFPA’s Executive Director, she introduced a focus on culture to the agency’s development work, linking gender and universal values of human rights and human worth promoted by all religions in all cultures.
