GhLinks Media
Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee known as Martha Pobee for short is a Ghanaian politician and diplomat who was appointed as Ghana’s Permanent Representative to the UN by President John Dramani Mahama in July 2015, the first female to hold the position.
On 21st May 2020, Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee was appointed as Assistant Secretary-General for Africa in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations.
Education
Ambassador Martha Pobee obtained her bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy from the University of Ghana and her master’s degree in development studies from the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague.
She also studied multilateral diplomacy at the Geneva Institute for International Studies and public administration at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.
Career
Ms. Pobee has been a career diplomat, serving in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for almost 30 years.
Currently Chief Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, she was previously Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ghana to the United Nations from 2015 until 2020.
In that position, she performed various special assignments, including as the Chair of the African Group of Ambassadors in New York, Vice-President of the seventy-first session of the United Nations General Assembly, Chair of the New York Group of Friends of the African Women Leaders Network, Co-Facilitator of the High-Level Meeting on Financing for Development 2019, and Co-Chair of the Group of Friends on Gender Parity at the United Nations, among others.
Ms. Pobee previously served as Deputy Head of Mission and Chargé d’affaires at the Ghana High Commission in Pretoria (2012-2015), Director of the Information and Public Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2010-2012) and Head of Chancery at the Ghanaian Embassy in Washington, D.C. (2006-2010). She was Acting Director of the Bureaux for Human Resources and Administration (2006) and for Information, Culture and Linguistics (2004-2006).
Posted to the Ghanaian Embassy in Tel Aviv in 2000, she served as Minister-Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission (2002‑2004), and as Chargé d’affaires (2000-2002).
Ms. Pobee also served as Acting Director of the Personnel and Training Bureau (1998-2000), having been posted to Ghana’s Permanent Mission to the Office of the United Nations in Geneva (1995‑1998) and to the Embassy in Moscow, where she was First Secretary (1994-1995).
Private Life
Ambassador Martha Pobee is married to John Samuel Pobee, an Anglican bishop and Emeritus Professor at the University of Ghana, on 26 July 1994.
She is a Roman Catholic.
