Lena Al-Odeh

Lena Al-Odeh is currently working as an independent consultant and political analyst for the Middle East and North Africa. Recently she conducted a study on behalf of the GIZ for the Federal Foreign Office to discuss options for support of civil society actors in Lebanon. Since the end of 2020 she has been living in Amman. She also spent extended stays in in Syria, Tunisia and Lebanon.

From 2016 to 2020 she worked for the German Federal Foreign Office. Until 2018 she was responsible for press and cultural affairs of the German embassy in Tunis. After that, at the Foreign Office`s Middle East Department in Berlin, she was in charge of the bilateral relations with Lebanon, inlcuding the coordination within the federal government and the cooperation with international stakeholders. 

Before entering the Foreign Service, Lena Al-Odeh worked for the Bonn-based NGO for children and youth Don Bosco Mondo, the German Economic Institute and the Central Office for Foreign Education.

She did her studies in Arabic and Islamic Culture and Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Münster and completed her Master in Arabic Language and Translation at the University of Bonn.

Lena Al-Odeh focusses on transition processes in the Arab world and the engagement of civil society actors, on refugees, migration and integration and on strategic questions of German and European Middle East Policy.

Contact: al-odeh[at]meia-research.org