During her time in the post, she has expanded the normative and operational activities of UNODC, which covers countering corruption, addressing organized crime and the world drug problem, and preventing and countering terrorism. Under her leadership, UNODC’s field presence has grown to reach 150 countries, and the Office’s delivery has increased by 60 per cent.
She is a strong advocate for social justice, disability inclusion, and the empowerment of women, children and youth across the work of UNOV/UNODC.
Ms. Waly’s work experience includes 35 years in the field of poverty reduction, social protection, and international development. She served as the Minister of Social Solidarity of Egypt from March 2014 until 2020. In those six years, she also served as the Coordinator of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Social Justice and chaired the Executive Bureau of the Council of Arab Ministers of Social Affairs under the League of Arab States. In addition, she was the Chair of Nasser Social Bank, a developmental financial institution established to serve the poor and those with low incomes, and she chaired the boards of the National Center for Social and Criminological Research, the National Fund for Drug and Addiction Control and the National Authority for Social Insurance, which serves 25 million Egyptians, in the same period. She further served as an advisor to the Chair of Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority and on the board of the country's Consumer Protection Agency.
Prior to this, Ms. Waly held leadership positions as the Managing Director of the Social Fund for Development (SFD), a multimillion-dollar fund for small- and medium-sized enterprises, and as Assistant Resident Representative for poverty reduction at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where she was responsible for coordinating the Millennium Development Goals reports and launched the National Strategy for microfinance. She was also the first Programme Director of CARE International, an international non-governmental organization, in Egypt, where she worked in the field of poverty alleviation and served as the Vice-Chair of the Egyptian Red Crescent Society.
Ms. Waly holds an M.A. in humanities and a B.A. in foreign languages and literature from Colorado State University (United States of America), as well as diplomas in international development and in project management. She has been certified in microfinance by the University of Colorado Boulder, is fluent in Arabic, English and French, and has a working knowledge of Spanish.
