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Arab Finance: United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Egypt's former Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), succeeding Rola Dashti, as per a statement.
Guterres expressed appreciation for Dashti’s service and extended his thanks to Mourad Wahba, who will continue as Acting Executive Secretary until Al-Mashat assumes her role.
Al-Mashat has more than 25 years of experience in economic diplomacy, with a background spanning macroeconomic policy, central banking, sustainable development, and climate finance. Her work has focused on structural and institutional reform, as well as international cooperation and partnerships related to climate and gender.
She served as a minister in Egypt from 2018 to 2026, holding three portfolios: Tourism, where she was the country’s first female minister in the role, followed by International Cooperation, and later Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation.
Prior to her ministerial roles, Al-Mashat was Sub-Governor for Monetary Policy at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) from 2005 to 2016, where she contributed to changes in the bank’s monetary policy framework.
Her international experience includes serving as Advisor to the Chief Economist and Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., across two periods from 2001 to 2005 and 2016 to 2018. She has also held board and advisory roles with several financial and development institutions, including the World Bank Group, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the Islamic Development Bank.
Throughout her career, Al-Mashat has worked across policy, finance, and development cooperation, dealing with domestic and geopolitical factors affecting institutional work. She has also supported multilateral cooperation and worked on partnership-based national and global initiatives, including frameworks related to development finance.
Al-Mashat holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a BA in Economics from the American University in Cairo. She has completed executive education programs in leadership and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and in transformational leadership at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
Her academic work includes publications with the International Monetary Fund and the London School of Economics. In addition to Arabic, she is fluent in English and has knowledge of French.
