Mbarka Bouaida (born 1975) is a Moroccan politician who served as Minister-Delegate of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in the Benkirane government. In July 2019, she was elected president of the southeast region Guelmim-Oued Noun, the first woman elected as a Moroccan regional leader.
Bouaida was born in 1975 in Laqssabi near Guelmim.[1] She is of Sahrawi origin, of the Aït Lahcen tribe, part of the Tekna confederation.
Bouaida has a degree from the Graduate School of Management in Casablanca, and MBA from the University of Hull and a Masters in Communication from the University of Toulouse.[1]
Bouaida was Director of Audit and Management Control for the Petrom Group from 2003.
Bouaida is a member of the National Rally of Independents and was elected under the women's quota to the House of Representatives to represent Anfa in 2007, making her the parliament's youngest member.[1] [2] She chaired the Committee of Foreign Affairs and the National Defence and Religious Affairs and was in charge of relations between the Moroccan and European Parliaments.[3] In June 2009, she was also elected to the city council of Greater Casablanca.[1]
Bouaida was elected to a second parliamentary term outside the women's quota in 2010.[4] She was appointed Minister-Delegate for Foreign Affairs by King Mohammed VI on 10 October 2013.[5] From 2017, she served as Secretary of State to the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.[6]
Bouaida has been Vice-President of the International Parliamentarian Forum for Democracy since September 2011 and is a Member of the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe. She is also the General Secretary of the Moustaqbal Association for Education.[3] She was named "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum in 2012.[5] She also represents Morocco in the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly.[2] In 2015, she led Morocco's delegation to the White House Summit on Countering Extreme Violence led by Joe Biden.[7]
On 5 July 2019, Bouaida was elected regional leader of Guelmim-Oued Noun, the first woman in the country elected as a regional leader.[6]