Angolan diplomat and former minister Maria de Fátima Jardim is the new Executive Secretary of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP), it was announced today following the Conference of Heads of State and Government. Jardim succeeds Timorese Zacarias da Costa, who served two terms in the position (since 2021).

The new executive secretary has a degree in biology from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and was vice-president of the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), representing Africa, a position she assumed in 2021.

The Angolan diplomat was director of the National Institute of Fisheries and Marine Research (INIPM) in the Angolan city of Lobito and later assumed the role of Director of the National Institute of Fisheries Research (INIP) in Luanda.

In addition to being Minister of Fisheries between 1992 and 1996, in the Government of Unity and National Reconciliation of Angola, she was Minister of Fisheries and Environment from 1996 to 2002 and from 2008 to 2015, she was Minister of the Environment.

In 2015, she was sent to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21), representing Angola and the Least Developed Countries in the negotiations that led to the Paris Agreement. From 2003 to 2008, Maria de Fátima Jardim was a member of the Angolan National Assembly. Until March of this year, she was Angola's ambassador to Italy.

The CPLP Executive Secretariat is the organization's main executive body and is responsible for implementing the decisions of the Conference of Heads of State and Government, the Council of Foreign Ministers and the Permanent Concertation Committee.

It is also responsible for planning and ensuring the implementation of the organization's programs, organizing and participating in meetings of the various community bodies and monitoring the implementation of decisions made at ministerial meetings and other initiatives of the organization.

Picture: © 2025 Manuel de Almeida