Who is Afrah al-Zouba, the first foreign minister of Yemen? | | Political Affairs

The appointment of Afrah al-Zouba as Yemen’s foreign minister on Thursday is drawing attention – she is the country’s first female prime minister.

But the rise of al-Zouba has been decades in the making, shaped by the development of work, dialogue, and other important political discussions in Yemen’s recent history.

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Al-Zouba spent more than 25 years working mainly in development and peace-building, and then transitioned into public service, most recently appointed in February as Minister of Planning and International Cooperation. Before that, he was the head of an aid organization in Yemen.

He first became known in the Arab world after the revolution of 2011. He became the deputy secretary general of the organization National Dialogue Conferencea reform organization that oversees Yemen’s long-term exodus Former President Ali Abdullah Salehand write new laws.

From development to politics

Al-Zouba came from al-Bayda in central Yemen. Originally trained as a pharmacist, he earned a bachelor’s degree at Sanaa University, before studying for a master’s degree in community health and economics in Malaysia, and then an MBA at the University of Science and Technology there in Yemen.

The integration of health, economics and management can form the basis of work that focuses on development policy and government reform.

His first job working for SOUL for Development, a non-Yemen organization, took him to some of the poorest and most oppressed areas of the country.

There, his focus was on projects aimed at reducing poverty and improving access to health care and education in rural areas. She later worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on programs related to governance and democracy, conflict reduction and efforts to increase opportunities for women and youth.

His work led him to stay in the government.

In 2019, he acted as an advisor to then Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik on humanitarian aid and development, at a time when years of war left Yemen facing one of the world’s biggest crises.

Two years later, he was appointed director general of the Executive Bureau for Accelerating Aid Absorption and Supporting Policy Reforms.

Political change

Between 2013 and 2015, al-Zouba was the first deputy secretary general of the National Dialogue Conference, an initiative aimed at bringing the political and social groups of Yemen to agree on the shape of a new political system.

Al-Zouba helped oversee the technical and organizational aspects of the conference and helped draft and draft the final document that outlined its principles.

He later sat on the Constitution Drafting Committee, which was tasked with turning the political agreements between Yemen’s political parties and the independents into a proposed new constitution.

In the end, this failed because the Houthi group, which was part of the National Dialogue Conference, rejected the initiative and instead marched on Sanaa, taking control of the capital in September 2014.

The country entered a war that has not come out, but the talks are still one of the most important steps in recent years to build political unity.

Peacemaking and negotiation

Although critics doubt that al-Zouba has the necessary experience to fulfill the role of foreign minister, he has been involved in peace-building activities over the past decade.

Between 2016 and 2017, al-Zouba was one of the few Yemeni women invited by the United Nations to take part in the Yemeni peace talks, which took place in Kuwait at the time.

Her participation reflects a strong push to increase the participation of Yemeni women in the peace process, even if they remain underrepresented in the negotiations between the warring factions.

Now inside the tent, his position as foreign minister comes at a critical time for the Yemeni government and the rest of the world.

The government is trying to unite Yemen’s anti-Houthi forces under a single organization, and establish itself in the south and east – areas not controlled by the Houthis. After four years of calm, violence is increasing again, with the possibility of all wars between the Houthis and the government at a distance.

Al-Zouba will find himself accusing the government of the whole region, the West and the United Nations, while the country of Yemen wants to re-establish its control over the whole world.