United Nations

NEW YORK, 22 November (UN Headquarters) -- The following statement was issued today by the Office of the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General has today appointed Mervat M. Tallawy, an Egyptian national, as Executive Secretary for the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), at the level of Under-Secretary-General.  

Ms. Tallawy currently serves as Secretary-General of the National Council for Women in Egypt.  She has served as Minister for Insurance and Social Affairs of Egypt (1997-1999), after a long and distinguished career in foreign affairs and public service, which included representing Egypt as Ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1997.  

In her diverse work within the United Nations, she has played a special role in population and gender issues.  She has held several leadership positions in the United Nations intergovernmental processes, including the Commission on the Status of Women, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and the Cairo Conference on Population and Development, as well as its five-year review.  She has also served as a Deputy Director to the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW).

At the national level, she has been closely involved with developmental issues, including anti-poverty programmes, disability and building partnerships with non-governmental organizations and business.

Ms. Tallawy received Bachelor of Arts degrees in both political science and business administration from the American University in Cairo.  She also spent two years at the Institute of Strategic Studies in Cairo, and studied international relations at the Graduate Institute of International Studies at Geneva University in Switzerland.  

Mervat Tallawy is married and has one daughter and two grandsons.  She is fluent in Arabic, English and French.