Nadia Al-Sakkaf

Dr. Nadia Al-Sakkaf is a renowned independent Yemeni researcher with expertise in media, gender, democratic transitions, climate change and development. She was the first woman appointed as Minister of Information and before that was chief editor of the country’s first English language newspaper, the Yemen Times. She is co-founder of the Connecting Yemen initiative to advocate for accessible and affordable internet in Yemen. Al-Sakkaf is a recipient of many international and local awards, and was recognized by the BBC as one of 100 Women who changed the world, and well as one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders in 2015. She has published extensively in the fields of politics, media, and development with many policy, research papers, and book chapters, and has authored two books on Yemeni women’s empowerment. She also published a book collection on the experiences of Yemeni women as electoral candidates available in Arabic and English. She is presently the Director of Research at Arabia Brain Trust. She tweets @nadiasakkaf.