Caroline Gennez (°Sint-Truiden, 1975) is the Belgian Minister for Development Cooperation and Major Cities Policies. She is responsible for Belgium’s development cooperation policy, humanitarian aid, and implements projects to improve the living, working and housing conditions in Belgium’s big cities. Before that, she was a Senator, a member of the Belgian Parliament and a member of the Flemish Parliament. She was also deputy mayor of Mechelen between 2007 and 2012. At the same time, in 2007, she became the first chairwomen of the Flemish social-democratic party sp.a (now Vooruit). She studied Political Sciences at the KU Leuven and did volunteer work in several organisations for many years. These experiences inspired her to go into politics. She joined the Young Socialists and became their chairperson in 1998.

Her political passions are Education, Work, and Economic Affairs. As Minister of Development Cooperation, one of her priorities is international solidarity as contribution to the creation of welfare states, while focusing on education, health care, education and social protection.