"Facing Crises: Challenges and Opportunities Confronting the Third Sector and Civil Society"
Kadir Has University
Istanbul, Turkey
July 7-10, 2010
Ninth International Conference of theInternational Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR)
Keynote Address
Dr. Thoraya Obaid will present the Keynote Address
Dr. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid will present the keynote address at the Istanbul Conference. Dr. Thoraya Obaid was appointed as Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, effective January 1, 2001, making her the first Saudi Arabian to head a United Nations agency. She has the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Dr. Obaid has a long and distinguished career at the United Nations. She has worked for the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) from 1975 to 1998, where she rose to the rank of Deputy Executive Secretary. In 1998, she moved to UNFPA as Director of the then-Division for Arab States and Europe, occupying that position until 2001, when she assumed her current post.
Dr. Obaid is the first Saudi Arabian woman to receive a government scholarship to a university in the United States in 1963. She has a doctorate degree in English Literature and Cultural Anthropology from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.
To pursue her main concern, the empowerment of women and realization of gender equality, Dr. Obaid has been involved in many projects relating to gender. For instance, she established the first women’s development program in Western Asia to promote partnerships between the UN and regional NGOs on gender issues in 1975. She has created programs to empower women and develop their capacities in cooperation with governments for more than 20 years. She also chaired the first United Nations Inter-agency Task Force on Gender in Amman, Jordan in 1996 and engaged as a member of the United Nations Inter-agency Gender Mission to Afghanistan in 1997.
Dr. Obaid regards civil society as a crucial factor to protect girls’ and women’s lives and to give them the right to take choices for their lives; therefore, she encourages building partnerships among the UN, NGOs and governments and networks of NGOs at every opportunity such as the Conference on Reproductive Health in Nairobi in 2002, World AIDS Day in 2006 and a Commission on the Status of Women in New York in 2007. Besides, she established the Association for Working Mothers in Lebanon and has been involved in Al-Nahdha Women’s Philanthoropic Association in Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Obaid’s consistent efforts prompted the Saudi Arabian government to sign the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and brought many awards and honors from all over the world to her including the Pedro Joaquin Chamorro Award from Nicaragua Parliament in 2003, Second Century Award for Excellence in Health Care from Columbia University, New York in 2003, Honorary doctoral degree of Law from Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan in 2004, and Commemorative Medal from Bulgaria in 2006.
Throughout her career, Dr Obaid has championed the causes of women's and young people's health and empowerment. Her work focuses on supporting governments to establish programmes to empower women and develop their capacities as citizens with rights and responsibilities. She has also emphasized the importance of promoting development through a culturally sensitive approach, working within the context of each society, and taking into consideration cultural values and religious beliefs that shape people and affect their actions. As UNFPA Executive Director, she has introduced a focus on culture to the Fund's development work, linking gender, universal values of human rights and values of human worth promoted by all religions and found in all cultures.