Sigrid Kaag

Sigrid Agnes Maria Kaag (born 2 November 1961) is a Dutch politician, humanitarian and diplomat who is the UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza since 2024. Kaag most recently served in the fourth Rutte cabinet as First Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister of Finance from 2022 to 2024 and has previously served as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation and Minister of Foreign Affairs. She was Leader of the Democrats 66 (D66) from 2020 to 2023.

A diplomat by occupation, Kaag started working for the United Nations in 1994. She was Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa for UNICEF in Amman from 2007 to May 2010, when she was appointed Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Bureau of External Relations of the UNDP in New York City. From October 2013 to September 2014, she served as Under Secretary-General and Special Coordinator of the OPCW-UN Joint Mission in Syria to oversee the elimination of the country's chemical weapons program. From January 2015 to October 2017, Kaag was the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL).

Kaag entered Dutch politics in 2017 as minister for foreign trade and development cooperation in the third Rutte cabinet on behalf of D66. She ascended to party leadership ahead of the 2021 general election and also served for some months as minister of foreign affairs. When the fourth Rutte cabinet was formed in January 2022, Kaag became first deputy prime Minister and minister of finance. She decided not to run for re-election in 2023 and was succeeded by Rob Jetten as party leader. Kaag resigned as minister in January 2024 to return to the United Nations as senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza.

Early life and education
Kaag was born on 2 November 1961 in Rijswijk as the second daughter of Frans Kaag and Agnes Kaag-Robben. Her father, who was a classical pianist and music teacher, was originally from Wervershoof, while her mother, a primary school teacher, was from Arnhem. The family settled in Zeist, where Kaag grew up. One of her brothers died when Kaag was six.

After completing her secondary education, she initially studied Arabic at Utrecht University, but later switched to The American University in Cairo where she obtained a B.A. degree in Middle East Studies in 1985. She subsequently obtained an M.Phil. degree in International Relations from St Antony's College, Oxford in 1987 and an M.A. degree in Middle East Studies from the University of Exeter in 1988. She also received foreign relations training at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, and studied at the French École nationale d'administration (ENA).

Early career
Kaag began her professional career in 1988 as an analyst for Royal Dutch Shell in London, United Kingdom. In 1990, she started working for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she was the deputy head of the department of United Nations political affairs.

1994–2017: Career at the United Nations
Kaag started working for the United Nations in 1994 and first served as Senior United Nations Adviser in the Office of the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Khartoum, Sudan. From 1998 to 2004, she was Chief of Donor Relations for the International Organization for Migration and Senior Programme Manager with the External Relations Office of UNRWA in Jerusalem. Working in the Middle East she was responsible for areas as the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

From 2007 to May 2010, Kaag was Regional Director for Middle East and North Africa for UNICEF in Amman. In May 2010, she was appointed Assistant Secretary-General and Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy of the United Nations Development Programme in New York. In this capacity, she was the deputy to Helen Clark and oversaw UNDP's strategic external engagement, organization-wide communication and advocacy, as well as resource mobilization.

Head of the OPCW-UN Joint Mission in Syria
On 13 October 2013, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon nominated Kaag to lead the OPCW-UN Joint Mission for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons. The United Nations Security Council was set to vote on her nomination three days later, on 16 October. She was then officially confirmed for the position. Kaag led a team of one hundred experts who were responsible for ensuring the elimination of Syria's chemical weapon stockpiles before 30 June 2014.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon
By the end of her term in September 2014, news media reported that Kaag was rumored to succeed Lakhdar Brahimi as UN Special Envoy to Syria. On 1 December 2014, the UN Secretary General Ban announced that Kaag would become the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL), succeeding Sir Derek Plumbly.

In early 2017, Kaag was considered by international media to be one of the candidates to succeed Helen Clark as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and head of the United Nations Development Group; the post eventually went to Achim Steiner.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation
Following the 2017 Dutch government formation, Kaag was asked for a ministerial post by D66 leader Alexander Pechtold. She was installed as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation on 26 October 2017. After the resignation of Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra on 13 February 2018, she was appointed ad interim to succeed him while conserving her other cabinet position. Kaag was consequently the first female Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. She was replaced by Stef Blok as foreign minister on 7 March 2018.

From 2018 to 2022, Kaag served on the joint World Bank–WHO Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), co-chaired by Elhadj As Sy and Gro Harlem Brundtland. In 2019, she joined the World Economic Forum High-Level Group on Humanitarian Investing, co-chaired by Børge Brende, Kristalina Georgieva and Peter Maurer.

2021 Dutch general election
Soon after joining the cabinet, there was speculation about Kaag's candidacy for the D66 leadership, which had arisen after the resignation of Alexander Pechtold. During this period, she also profiled herself by giving speeches, often outside her own portfolio as a minister.

On 21 June 2020, Kaag announced her candidacy for lijsttrekkerschap of the Democrats 66 for the 2021 general election, with the ambition of becoming the Netherlands' first female prime minister. Kajsa Ollongren and Rob Jetten were also speculated to stand as candidates, but both refrained from doing so. The only opponent was the unknown member Ton Visser, which resulted in Kaag winning the election with 95.7% of the votes. She was elected as party leader on 4 September 2020, making her the second female party leader of D66 after Els Borst in 1998. In this capacity, she led the party into the 2021 Dutch general election.

In the run-up to the election, the VPRO documentary Sigrid Kaag: Van Beiroet tot Binnenhof was broadcast on 3 January 2021. Before this, Kaag had been followed for several years by documentary makers. After the elections, GeenStijl published about the communication between the broadcasting company and D66 about the documentary, which they had obtained via a request for access to government information. This showed that D66 did have a lot of substantive requests, some of which were granted, although this was denied beforehand. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also interfered, including the broadcast date of the documentary. Initially, Kaag indicated that this was not at her request, but soon admitted that she was responsible for it. Following this report, the Dutch Media Authority (Commissariaat voor de Media) stated that there was no reason for further investigation, as editorial independence does not appear to have been violated.

D66's campaign for the 2021 general election was successful. Under Kaag's leadership, D66 won 24 seats in the House of Representatives, thereby becoming the second-largest party after the VVD. Kaag joined the House of Representatives as the party's parliamentary leader on 31 March 2021.

During a lecture in the Rode Hoed debating centre in September of the same year, she voiced fierce criticism of the political culture that had arisen partly under Mark Rutte's leadership. Shortly afterward, in April 2021, she joined forces with CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra in putting forward a motion of censure to voice their disapproval of VVD leader Rutte.

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Due to changes within the outgoing cabinet, Kaag was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs on 25 May 2021. She combined this position with her position as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation until 10 August 2021. Thereafter, she was succeeded as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation by another former diplomat, Tom de Bruijn.

On 16 September 2021, the House of Representatives passed a motion of censure against her. A majority reproached her for the late evacuation of Dutch citizens and local civilian personnel from Afghanistan amid the 2021 Taliban offensive and Fall of Kabul. In response to the passing of the motion of censure, Kaag announced her intention to resign as minister. King Willem-Alexander granted her resignation on 17 September, and she was succeeded by Ben Knapen.

Minister of finance


Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands Sigrid Kaag at the State Department in Washington, D.C. on November 15, 2023 (cropped).jpg

After she negotiated in the 2021–2022 Dutch cabinet formation, Kaag returned to the fourth Rutte cabinet as minister of finance and first deputy prime minister. Days before, a candidate of the Jezus Leeft party had stood outside of Kaag's home with a burning torch, and security measures were subsequently raised. Trouw profiled Kaag as a typical frugal Dutch finance minister who forced spending cuts following years of economic stimulus programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. She called constant compensation untenable in the 2021–2023 global energy crisis, acknowledging citizens would collectively become less wealthy. In her role as deputy prime minister, Kaag had more leeway within the governing coalition to act as a result of frequent international trips by Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

On 12 July 2023, five days after the collapse of the fourth Rutte cabinet, Kaag announced in an interview in Trouw that she would not lead D66 into the 2023 general election, due to the impact of the "hate, intimidation and threats" her family was receiving. According to the Nederlands Dagblad, these had reached a high point when she had become leader of D66. Its article referenced public perceptions of Kaag as an elitist politician as well as PVV leader Geert Wilders calling her a witch in 2021. In May 2023, during a College Tour interview, when she was shown a video message from one of her daughters asking her to leave her job, she had become tearful.

2024–present: Return to diplomacy
On 26 December 2023, Kaag was announced as the UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza. This was the result of the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution to boost humanitarian aid in response to the Israel–Hamas war, which had been ongoing since a Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023 and which had resulted in a siege of Gaza by Israel with significant civilian casualties and destruction as well as scarcity of resources. Kaag's appointment will take effect on 8 January 2024. The UN tasked Kaag to "facilitate, coordinate, monitor and verify humanitarian relief consignments to Gaza" and to establish a UN mechanism to accelerate aid deliveries "through states which are not party to the conflict".

Honours and awards

 * 2015 – Honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Exeter
 * 2016 – Wateler Peace Prize awarded by the Carnegie Foundation

European Union organisations

 * European Investment Bank (EIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2022)
 * European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Member of the Board of Governors (since 2022)

International organizations

 * African Development Bank (AfDB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2017)
 * Asian Development Bank (ADB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2017)
 * Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2022)
 * European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors (since 2017)
 * Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2017)
 * Joint World Bank-IMF Development Committee, Alternate Member
 * Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), World Bank Group, Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors (since 2017)
 * World Bank, Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors (since 2017)
 * OECD/UNDP Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB), Member of the Governing Board (since 2017)

Non-profit organizations

 * P4G – Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2019)
 * Generation Unlimited, Member of the Board (since 2018)
 * International Gender Champions (IGC), Member (since 2017)
 * Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC), Member (2017)

Personal life
Kaag is married and has four children. Her husband, Anis al-Qaq, is a dentist and a Palestinian national from Jerusalem who served as a deputy minister under Yasser Arafat in the 1990s and as the Palestinian representative to Switzerland. The couple married in Jerusalem, and they suffered several miscarriages. Kaag is a noted polyglot and speaks six languages: Dutch, English, French, Spanish, German and Arabic. She was raised Catholic and has mentioned that she practices the religion without following all of its rituals.