Dr. Amawi is currently the Secretary General of the Higher Population Council. She has significant experience in leading and managing global, regional and country development portfolios. She served as Deputy Country Director with UNDP in Pakistan and as Senior Programme Manager/Senior Policy Adviser with UNDP/Gaza. Previously, she served as Country Representative for UNWOMEN in Sudan and Egypt. 

Her former assignments included Governance Team Leader/Senior Advisor at UNDP/Jerusalem focusing on Rule of Law/Access to Justice, Statehood and Local Development, Gender Equality, and Public Adminisration Reform; Public Administration Reform Regional Manager for Arab States and Capacity Development Practice Team Leader and; Assistant Resident Representative with UNDP/Jordan and Sudan in charge of Social Development, Poverty and Gender in addition to detailed missions to UNDP/Headquarters and East Europe. 

Prior to UNDP, Dr. Amawi served as a visiting assistant professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, Randolph-Macon College (USA) and the Applied Science University, Jordan. Dr. Amawi earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. (1993) in Comparative Politics and Political Theory. She has published several books and articles on issues of gender, democratization, civil society, and political economy and contributed to numerous papers, articles and conferences in the areas of institutional reform, capacity development, and human rights.