Top UNDP Official For Arab States Arrives in Sudan

Khartoum, 5 June 2010 – The United Nations Assistant Secretary General, Assistant Administrator of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Director of its Regional Bureau for Arab States, Ms. Amat Al Alim Alsoswa arrived on an official visit to Sudan, here today. During the course of her week-long visit, Ms. Alsoswa will hold wide-ranging discussions with high-level government representatives on issues of common interest for the Sudanese Government of National Unity, the Government of Southern Sudan and UNDP, including efforts underway and challenges on the road to achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Sudan by 2015.

Ms. Alsoswa will exchange information with women representatives from political parties who form part of the Women in Political Parties Forum. The Forum was founded under the UNDP’s Good Governance and Equity in Political Participation Project (GGEPP). On the second-leg of her visit to El Fasher, Ms. Alsoswa will review programmes focusing on building institutional capacity for effective rule of law and women's development in the Western region.

She will meet with a cross-section of civil society representatives and women’s groups and visit a number of UNDP-supported project locations in different parts of the country to get a first-hand assessment of the progress being made on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants, promoting gender equality, strengthening rule of law and local-level democracy and building livelihoods and state institutions.

A Yemeni national, Ms. Alsoswa was appointed to the UNDP position in January 2006. earlier, she served as the Minister of Human Rights in Yemen, the first human rights woman Minister in Yemen’s history. During her tenure, she established and oversaw Yemen’s first Human Rights Ministry, initiated the country’s first national human rights report, and established a public human rights resource center. She also served as Ambassador of Yemen to Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, where she was Yemen’s Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague.

Alsoswa has published and lectured extensively and has received numerous awards. She was made an Officier in the Order of the Légion d'Honneur (France) and is the recipient of the Medal of the Egyptian Committee for Afro Asian Solidarity.

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For more information please contact:
Kumar Tiku: Head, Communications Unit, UNDP Sudan: kumar.tiku@undp.org

UNDP is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.