On the 2nd of August 2016, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Ms. Rima Khalaf announced the appointment of Ms. Khawla Mattar (The Kingdom of Bahrain) as Deputy Executive Secretary for Programme Support. 
 
Ms. Mattar is bringing with her a vast working experience in development and in political offices of the UN. She has also worked closely on issues of gender; equality; human rights; migrant workers; rights at work for all and children’s rights. 
 
Prior to her appointment at ESCWA, Ms. Mattar was the Director of the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria in Damascus where she managed to merge her developmental and political backgrounds.  Before her functions in Syria, she was the Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Cairo (UNIC-Cairo), which covers the whole Arab region. During that same period she was asked to take the responsibility of the spokesperson for the then Special Envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi.