Governance

Dr Amani Abou-Zeid is the former twice-elected African Union Commissioner in charge of Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalisation (8 years).

She served 35+ years in leadership positions in international political and financing institutions, such as the African Union, the African Development Bank, UNDP and USAID, the Social Fund.

Throughout her distinguished career, she amassed a remarkable mix of strategic and operational professional experience and achievements across Africa, France, UK and Canada and across constituencies with wide array of stakeholders.

She financed and implemented hundreds of national, regional and trans-continental transport, energy and digitalisations strategies, projects and programmes and forged strong public, private, bilateral and multilateral international partnerships — focusing on inclusiveness and sustainability and aiming to promote well-being, resilience and integration

Dr Amani Abou-Zeid led African efforts for road safety at the continental level, women safety in transportations, African Road Safety Observatory and the implementation of the African Road Safety Charter as a key framework for improving road safety across the continent. She was presented with a special award for her efforts at the Fourth Global Ministerial Summit on Road Safety.

Dr Abou-Zeid holds her multi-disciplinary academic degrees from prestigious academic institutions:

• B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University;
• MBA in project management for African Development from the French University for African Development (Université Senghor);
• Masters of Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard School of Government;
• Ph.D. in Social and Economic Development from The University of Manchester, UK.
• DES in Arts from Université Sorbonne-Paris IV.

She is recipient of numerous international awards and recognitions for her leadership and excellence: selected Global Development Leader and conferred Doctorate honoris causa by the University of Manchester, UK, recognising the synthesis of sustainability and economic development and the merging of high-tech engineering and complex program management in her work; decorated the Wissam Alaouite from Morocco and Ordre du Lion from Senegal; selected numerous times as one of “The Most Influential Women in Africa".

Dr Abou-Zeid is an example for women in STEM and in leadership and decision making positions and is long recognised champion of gender equality and women empowerment.

She is passionate about classical music, plays piano, and is a certified alpinist.