UNESCO member states on Friday confirmed the nomination of France's former culture minister Audrey Azoulay to head the cultural agency.
45-year-old Azoulay becomes UNESCO's second woman director general.
According to the reports, Azoulay succeeds Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, whose eight-year term was marred by financial woes.
Azoulay narrowly defeated Qatar's Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, also a former culture minister, in last month's politically-charged election, the report said.
The international standing of the Paris-based organisation has been mired by a lack of funding and disputes between member states.
Last month, the United States withdrew from the UNESCO, over what the country claimed, is the organisation's "continuing anti-Israel bias".
Walking the footsteps of the US, Israel had also pulled out of the United Nations' cultural and education agency.
The Israeli leader had called the US decision to exit UNESCO "brave and moral".
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