The United Nations Information Center in Beirut (UNIC) announced on January 22nd the appointment of Kwaiti Dr. Rula Dashti as the executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) to succeed Mohamad Ali Hakeem of Iraq. Dashti, an economic expert and women’s rights and gender equality campaigner, is currently a member of the Supreme Planning Council in Kuwait. She served as a minister for planning and development and minister of state for parliamentary affairs between 2012 and 2014. She played a significant role in advocating for the ratification of a decree that allows Kuwaiti women to vote and run for parliamentary elections. Dashti also held key positions in research and development institutions, like the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, and worked for major local and international financial and development agencies, such as the National Bank of Kuwait and the World Bank. Dashti, holds a PhD in population dynamics from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, a master’s in economics and finance from California State University-Sacramento, and a bachelor’s degree in agriculture economics from California State University- Chico. (An Nahar, January 23, 2019)