Yasmine Fouad
Dr. Yasmine Fouad is one of Egypt's most consequential voices on the world stage. One of the longest-serving ministers in the Egyptian government, she spent seven years as Egypt's Minister of Environment before making history as the first Egyptian and Arab woman to be appointed Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). An expert in environmental diplomacy with over 25 years of experience in environmental governance and international climate diplomacy, Fouad has shaped global conversations on land degradation, water security, and biodiversity. She is a rare figure who carried Egypt's ambition from national policy rooms all the way to the highest corridors of the United Nations.
Yasmine Fouad EOTW #35 (2 June 2026)
There are few living Egyptians who embody the bridge between national service and global leadership as powerfully as Dr. Yasmine Fouad. Born in March 1975, she holds a PhD in Euro-Mediterranean Studies from Cairo University and an MSc in Environmental Science from Ain Shams University — an academic foundation that reflects both her deep Egyptian roots and her outward-facing international ambitions. Her expertise spans environment, international cooperation, climate change, government, UN organizations, NGOs, and academia, making her one of the most comprehensively prepared environmental diplomats of her generation anywhere in the world, not just the Arab world.
Her rise through Egypt's government was steady and purposeful. As Assistant Minister of Environment, she strengthened Africa's climate and environment agenda, supporting the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change and contributing to the launch of key regional frameworks. She also brought rigorous scientific credibility to her work: she was a lead author on the 2017 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, focusing on desertification and sustainable land management — a rare distinction that placed her among the world's most authoritative scientific voices on the issue she would later be charged with solving at a global scale.
As Egypt's Minister of Environment from 2018 to 2025, she drove major national reforms in climate and environment policy, championed the adoption of Egypt's Climate Change Strategy 2050, introduced the country's first Integrated Waste Management Law, and successfully secured a landmark commitment that all government projects become green by 2030. During her tenure, Egypt also issued the region's first sovereign green bond and created nearly 20,000 green jobs — tangible, measurable achievements that gave Egypt real credibility on the world stage when it came to the green transition.
That credibility was on full display when Egypt hosted COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh. The conference brought over 30,000 participants from around the world, and Dr. Fouad championed adaptation and resilience, elevating the needs of vulnerable communities to the heart of global climate negotiations. It was a moment that announced to the world that Egypt was not merely a participant in climate diplomacy — it was a convener and a shaper of it.
Her global fingerprints extend further still. As President of the 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP14), she steered negotiations that paved the way toward the Global Biodiversity Framework 2030. She also served as Egypt's Envoy for UNFCCC COP27, cementing her role as one of the central figures in the architecture of international environmental governance. Even in academia, her reach extended across the Atlantic: as a visiting scholar at Columbia University, she contributed to the Earth Institute, helping design a Centre of Excellence for Climate Change Adaptation in Egypt.
In 2025, all of this experience converged in a historic appointment. She became the first Egyptian and Arab woman to hold the position of Executive Secretary of the UNCCD, appointed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The UNCCD is one of the three Rio Conventions — alongside climate change and biodiversity — and its mandate to combat desertification and land degradation touches the lives of billions of people across Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. In assuming this role, Fouad did not simply represent Egypt on the world stage; she took command of it. She is proof that Egypt's contribution to humanity's most urgent challenges is not confined to its ancient monuments — it is being written, right now, by Egyptian women in Bonn, New York, and Sharm El-Sheikh.