Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee

Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee is a Ghanaian career diplomat. She was Ghana's first female Permanent Representative to the United Nations, from 2015 to 2021, and then served as the UN's Assistant Secretary-General for Africa until September 2026.

Education

She earned a bachelor's degree in English and philosophy from the University of Ghana and a master's degree in development studies, specialising in women and development, from the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. She also studied multilateral diplomacy at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and public administration at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

Foreign service

She spent more than 30 years in Ghana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She served at the embassy in Tel Aviv from 2000 to 2004 and was head of chancery at the embassy in Washington from 2006 to 2010. She then ran the ministry's Information and Public Affairs Bureau from 2010 to 2012 and was deputy head of mission at the High Commission in Pretoria from 2012 to 2015.

Permanent Representative

In July 2015 she became Ghana's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, the first woman to hold the post. She held it until May 2021.

Assistant Secretary-General for Africa

On 21 May 2021 Secretary-General António Guterres appointed her Assistant Secretary-General for Africa in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations. In that role she oversaw UN political and peacekeeping work on the continent and regularly briefed the Security Council on crises such as those in Sudan, South Sudan and Central Africa. On 15 September 2026 Guterres thanked her for her service and named the Kenyan diplomat Martin Kimani as her successor.

Personal life

She married John Samuel Pobee, an Anglican priest and emeritus professor, on 26 July 1994 at the University of Ghana. She is a Roman Catholic.