Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee

Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee is a distinguished Ghanaian career diplomat who serves as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Africa within the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations. Appointed to the role in May 2021, she brings more than three decades of experience in international affairs to one of the most sensitive portfolios at the heart of the United Nations system.

Pobee's career has been built on a foundation of academic preparation and steady diplomatic advancement. She holds a master's degree in Development Studies with a specialisation in Women and Development from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, and diplomas in Public Administration and multilateral diplomacy from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and the Geneva Institute of International Studies. That grounding equipped her for a long ascent through Ghana's foreign service.

Her postings placed her at successive centres of diplomatic activity. She served as Head of Chancery at the Ghanaian Embassy in Washington from 2006 to 2010, Director of the Information and Public Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2012, and Deputy Head of Mission and Charge d'affaires at the Ghana High Commission in Pretoria from 2012 to 2015. In 2015 she made history as Ghana's first female Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and she later served as Chief Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.

At the United Nations in New York she became Ghana's leading voice on the world body's most pressing questions, championing African interests, international cooperation and the inclusion of women in peace processes. Her appointment as Assistant Secretary-General for Africa in 2021 placed her in charge of political and peacekeeping matters across a continent grappling with conflicts, transitions and humanitarian crises. In that capacity she regularly briefs the Security Council on situations including those in Sudan and South Sudan.

Pobee is internationally recognised as an advocate for peace, gender equality and sustainable development, and she has used her senior UN position to press for African solutions to African challenges. With her extensive experience spanning bilateral diplomacy and multilateral negotiation, she continues to shape the world body's engagement with the continent. Her career stands as a marker of Ghana's contribution to global diplomacy and of the growing prominence of African women in the upper reaches of international institutions.