H.E. Ms. Sahar Ghanem is the Yemeni Ambassador to the Netherlands. She presented her letters of credence to The King of the Netherlands on 30th November 2016.
Ms. Ghanem is simultaneously the non-resident ambassador to Norway and Sweden, as well as the Permanent Representative of Yemen to the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). She is also Yemen’s Governor to the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC).
Additionally, Ambassador Ghanem is a member of the Advisory board of Women In
International Security Netherlands and was the coordinator of the Women Ambassadors Group in the Netherlands in 2020.
Ms. Ghanem held multiple roles and positions before serving as ambassador; she started her career with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and then made a lateral move to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Here she coordinated a project aimed at empowering Yemeni women by delivering their voices to the decision-makers in the Transitional Process and National Dialogue following the 2011 Uprising.
Ms. Ghanem’s latter role, expertise, and activism enabled her to represent the revolutionist youth at the National Dialogue Conference (2013 – 2014) as a member of the State Building Group. After the Conference, Ms. Ghanem sustained her commitment to the transitional process. She was appointed to manage the Civic Engagement Unit that ran a campaign aimed at engaging Yemenis with the political transition process, raising awareness on outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference, and encouraging civic engagement on the draft of the “Constitution of the New Yemen.”
One of Ms. Ghanem’s more recent roles includes being an advisor on Women, Youth, and Civil Society Affairs at the former Prime Minister’s bureau.
Ambassador Ghanem is known for being a political activist and feminist; she is a member of several national and regional networks and has actively participated in various programs, seminars, interviews, and conferences worldwide. They include the 3-year Dutch program “Female leaders from the MENA Region” and the sixtieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (UN). She also attended the 2016 Oslo Forum, which gathered senior conflict mediators, high-level decision-makers, key peace process actors, analysts, and experts from around the world to share their experiences, identify challenges, and reflect on mediation practice.
The Ambassador has a degree in Computer Engineering from Jordan University.
Expertise: Diplomacy, international relations, development policies, political transitions, civic engagement, gender equality, and women’s empowerment.
Languages: Arabic and English.
