Clara Ottesen (October 30, 1911 – May 8, 1997) was a Norwegian government official, economist, aid worker and politician.
degree in 1938 and was employed as a senior civil servant in the central government administration.
During the 1950s and 1960s she was a key government official within social affairs and gender equality policies in Norway.
She served as a United Nations development expert in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) from 1962 to 1964, resident in Dhaka, where she worked to develop programs to address the position of women in the then-Pakistani province.
From 1971 she was a member of the Executive Board of the European Movement in Norway, that was headed by former Foreign Minister Svenn Stray at the time.