The UN’s cultural agency voted on Monday to appoint former Egyptian minister Khaled El Enany as its next director general, as Unesco faces renewed scrutiny over political bias and the US decision to withdraw.
Mr El Enany, Egypt’s former minister of antiquities and tourism, will replace French chief Audrey Azoulay, who completed two four-year terms.
“My campaign has been one of listening: 65 countries, over 400 encounters with people whose ideas and hopes have shaped my vision. That vision has been written for and with them; rooted in their voices and grounded in shared aspirations,” Mr El Enany said in a statement on social media.
His nomination will now go before Unesco’s General Conference for formal ratification on November 6 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
The 58-member executive board has never had a recommendation rejected by the full assembly. The US, which announced its withdrawal from Unesco this year, did not take part in the vote.
Mr El Enany defeated Edouard Firmin Matoko of the Republic of the Congo in the secret ballot for a four-year term. He had long been considered the front-runner, having launched his campaign in April 2023.
The 54-year-old Egyptologist spent more than three decades teaching at Helwan University and holds a doctorate from Paul-Valery Montpellier 3 University in France, where he has also served as a visiting professor.
Before joining government in 2016, he directed Cairo’s Egyptian Museum and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation. He later served as minister of tourism and antiquities until 2022.
Fluent in Arabic, French and English, Mr El Enany was appointed as a special ambassador for cultural tourism by the UN World Tourism Organisation in 2024 and is a patron of the African World Heritage Fund.
If confirmed, he would become Unesco’s first Arab director general and the second African to lead the body after Senegal’s Amadou-Mahtar Mbow.
The Unesco chief oversees the agency’s work across education, science, culture and press freedom in its 194 member states – a position increasingly shaped by global political divides and questions over the future of multilateralism.
