Ambassador and
Permanent Representative of the UAE to the United Nations
Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh presented her credentials as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations in New York in September 2013.
Nusseibeh served as Vice-President of the UN General Assembly for its 72nd session. During the UN General Assembly’s 72nd and 73rd sessions, she was Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on UN Security Council Reform. In 2017, she also served as President of the UN Women Executive Board, and was awarded the UAE Prime Minister’s Government Excellence Award (the UAE Medal of Pride).
Before her appointment to the UN, Nusseibeh served in several capacities within the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. From 2010-2011, she was the UAE Co-Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. She was also previously Head of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Campaign Task Force and Director of Research and Communications for the Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs.
Nusseibeh received an MA (Cantab) and BA (Hons) in History from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and an MA with Distinction in Israeli and Jewish Diaspora Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
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Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) was formed on 1 January, 1992, by a decree issued by the late
Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum to merge Dubai Electricity Company and Dubai Water Department, which
had been operating independently before then. Both organisations were established by the late Sheikh Rashid
bin Saeed Al Maktoum in 1959. Dubai Government fully supported the Electricity Company and the Water
Department to provide Dubai’s citizens and residents with a continuous and reliable supply of electricity
and water. Since then, DEWA has made considerable achievements, to be ranked as one of the best utilities in
the world. DEWA provides services today to more than 900,000 customers with a happiness rate that reached
95% in 2018.
The UAE, represented by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), has maintained its first global
ranking, for the third consecutive year, with scores of 100% in all Getting Electricity indicators in the
World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report. The report measures the ease of doing business in 190 economies
around the world. DEWA achieved competitive results in global benchmarking, surpassing the private sector
and major European and American utilities in efficiency and reliability. DEWA raised the efficiency of its
energy production by using the latest technologies and adopting technological innovations, surpassing
European and American utilities, by reducing losses from electricity transmission and distribution networks
to 3.3% compared to 6–7% in the US and Europe. DEWA also achieved the lowest customer minutes lost per year
(CML) in the world of 2.39 CML compared to 15 minutes in Europe and was also able to reduce water network
losses to 6.5% in 2018 compared to 15% in North America, which is one of the best results in the world.
