Our Team in Mauritius

Ms. Lisa Simrique Singh

Lisa Simrique Singh

UN
Resident Coordinator for Mauritius and Seychelles
 
Ms. Singh brings over 25 years of experience in international development in Asia and Africa continents, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Laos, Nepal, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Uganda, and Vietnam.

Prior to her appointment as United Nations Resident Coordinator, Lisa Singh served as UNDP Resident Representative ad interim (ai) in Chad. She previously worked as UNDP Director of Programme and Deputy Resident Representative ai in Mali. She has significant senior policy expertise advising governments on issues of economic transformation, regional integration, sustainable development, and disaster and climate risk resilience.

As Senior Economist, she led joint UN collective actions to support governments in the finalization of national development strategies (Afghanistan and Cameroon) and more recently with national socioeconomic response planning for COVID-19 (Chad).

Lisa Singh is adept in intergovernmental processes including leadership roles in facilitating regional collaboration, knowledge brokering, south-south partnership, and financing solutions. As Regional Environment Governance Manager in the Mekong Region based in Cambodia, she played a lead role strengthening riparian diplomacy and cross-border capacity building to include work with the private sector and non-government organizations in the Asia Pacific Region.

Ms. Singh obtained her master’s degree in Economics from Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts (Economics and French) from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, USA. She is multilingual with fluency in English, French and Nepali.
Abigail Noko

Abigail Noko

OHCHR
Regional Representative for Southern Africa
 
Abigail Noko is the Regional Representative for Southern Africa at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). She has worked at the OHCHR for the past 19 years in various capacities. In her current capacity, she is responsible for overseeing the work of the regional office which covers 14 countries (Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe). This includes providing technical assistance and advisory services in human rights to States, United Nations agencies, sub-regional organizations, national human rights institutions, and civil society organizations.

Alexandros Makarigakis

UNESCO
Acting Regional Director and Representative
 
As of 1 July 2023, Director and Representative a.i. of UNESCO’s Multisectoral Regional Office for Eastern Africa, in Nairobi. Total of more than 25 years of progressively responsible experience in the field of environmental sciences, 21 of which on the international platform on issues of development in developing and developed countries with focus on natural resources management (water and environment). Nineteen years working at UNESCO, eight years of experience in the field of bioremediation of hazardous chemicals and ten years in municipal water and wastewater purification. Experience includes representing UNESCO in Uzbekistan, Ethiopia and the African Union, Chief of the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Unit, Global Coordinator of UNESCO’s Water for Human Settlements Programme, Regional Hydrologist for Africa, university lecturing, design and execution of innovative bench-scale treatment systems and mathematical model developments for further scale-up purposes as well as in-situ testing for verification, groundwater remediation and waste management. Authored and co-authored several scientific journal papers and book chapters.
IOM Chief of Mission Alia Hirji

Alia Hirji

IOM
Chief of Mission for Mauritius and Seychelles
 
Alia Hirji has joined the Mission to Mauritius and Seychelles from the IOM Sudan where she was based since July 2020. Previous workstations with IOM included Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and the Maldives.
Alia’s educational background spans from a Master’s Degree in Women Studies and a Graduate Diploma in Refugee and Migration Studies from York University in Toronto, Canada. Alia looks back on more than 17 years of practical experience within IOM in providing direct assistance to vulnerable migrants specifically in the areas of counter-trafficking and migrant protection.
Amanda K. Serumaga  UNDP Rep

Amanda K. Serumaga

UNDP
Resident Representative Mauritius and Seychelles
 
Amanda Serumaga brings more than 22 years working experience in public policy, governance and rule of law, and poverty law. Following a career as a legal advisor and in civil society, she began her UNDP career as Chief Rule of Law and Governance Team leader in Khartoum, Sudan and served as Team Leader Governance and Rule of Law and Deputy Country Director in South Sudan, Coordinator for Prevention of Violent Extremism in the Africa Bureau in New York; and as Country Director in Kenya.
Amjad Abbashar

Amjad Abbashar

UNDRR
Chief, Regional Office for Africa
 
Mr. Abbashar was appointed as the Chief of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Regional Office for Africa in 2016. From 2010 to 2015, he was the Chief of the UNDRR Regional Office for Arab States in Cairo, Egypt.
Mr. Abbashar began his United Nations career in the early 1990’s serving as Programme Officer with the UNDP Emergency Unit in Sudan dealing with Operation Lifeline Sudan.

From 1995 - 1997 he served as Field Coordinator in the Department of Humanitarian Affairs in Monrovia during the Liberian civil war, and from 1998 to 1999 he was assigned as Deputy Head office in OCHA Sierra Leone.
He joined the Policy Development and Studies Branch at OCHA Headquarters in New York in 1999, serving as a Humanitarian Affairs Officer focusing on inter- governmental matters related to the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council.

From 2004 - 2005, Mr. Abbashar served as the Chief of Staff of OCHA. Later- in 2006, he was Chief of the Policy Planning and Analyses Section where he focused on developing policies related to humanitarian affairs and their interface with the UN’s development, political and peacekeeping agendas. In 2006 he helped establish the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). Later he was part of the small team that established United Nations Peace-building Support office and the Human Security Trust Fund.

Mr. Abbashar graduated from Khartoum University and obtained an MA in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia.
Anne-Marie Ancia

Anne-Marie Ancia

WHO
Representative
 
Dr. Anne Ancia is a medical doctor with a diploma in tropical medicine, a master's in public health, and a master's in international affairs. Since 1995, she has worked in international public health, serving populations in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe with various international institutions. In Africa, some of the countries she has worked in include RDC, Angola, Madagascar, South Sudan, Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Mozambique.

Most recently she served as the WHO Representative in Sao Tome and Principe. She has 13 years of experience with WHO including 7 years in WHO headquarters in Geneva. She is delighted to now serve in Mauritius where she hopes to effectively contribute to improving the health and well-being of the men, women, and children of this beautiful country.
Rachel Inne

Anne-Rachel Inné

Regional Director for Africa
 
Anne-Rachel Inné is the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Regional Director for Africa. She also serves as liaison to the African Union and UNECA.

Prior to joining ITU, she was the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, at the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) and the primary link to Governments of US, Canada, and more than 25 Caribbean and North Atlantic economies that constitute ARIN’s region and the focal point for International IGOs, IOs and their work.

Immediately prior to working for ARIN, Anne-Rachel was the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)’s Vice President Government Engagement in Geneva, Switzerland, and worked for ICANN for 12 years in different policy and higher management positions.

She also worked as the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the Africa Regional Registry, AFRINIC, taking care of the total registry operations, and governments’ engagement in the Registry’s public policies process.

Anne-Rachel worked at the IICD in The Hague, Netherlands (1998-2001) as several African, Caribbean and South American countries’ programme manager directing multi sector social development projects that were early adopters of ICT/Internet. She produced and publicized Learning by Doing: Lessons emerging from the ICT
Stories Projects for the benefits of the projects and the wider community.

She was a member of the Bureau of the African Group at the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS), as a representative of the African private sector and a member of the Gender Coalition during WSIS with which she helped write Creating Your Own National Gender Programme – A Practical Guide

Anne-Rachel was an entrepreneur and consultant in the ICT4D for several years in developing economies and worked with African Union and UNECA on the African Information Society Initiative and subsequent NICI plans.

She was featured as ICT Expert in the ILO/IOM book for the AUC: African Women at the Service of the Union and a recipient of several awards for her demonstrated immense commitment and continued engagement with African communities.

She is the Chair or member of the Board of several NGOs that work in Digital Skills, Diplomacy in the digital age, African languages and ICTs and is the initiator/participant to several other initiatives around education and Internet/ICTs for Africa, by Africans.

Ashish Shah

Ashish Shah

ITC
Director, Division of Country Programmes
 
 
 
Mr. Ashish Shah has been working at the International Trade Centre (ITC) for 23 years in different capacities and is a member of its Senior Management Team. He currently serves as Director, Division of Country Programmes and previously held the post of Acting Deputy Executive Director. He has also spent several years in the Office for Africa, Office for Arab States, the Office of the Executive Director, where he was head of strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation. Prior to joining ITC, he worked first at the International Labour Office in Geneva and then at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for 6 years.

Mr. Shah brings with him 30 years of international and United Nations experience in the field of trade promotion and development working with policy makers, business support institutions and SMEs across the globe, particularly in Africa, Asia and the Arab Region.

He has extensive experience both in operations and strategic planning, resource mobilization, project design and management, client management and negotiations. He currently leads a team of over 200 people.
Mr. Shah leads, inter alia, ITC’s Innovation Lab. He is also the focal point for donor relations with two of ITC’s biggest donors.

An Indian national, Mr. Shah holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, a Master’s degree in Cooperative Economics and a PhD in Economics from Philipps University of Marburg, Germany. He is fluent in several languages.
Ashraf El Nour

Ashraf El Nour

IOM
Regional Director for Southern Africa
 
 
 
In his capacity as Regional Director, Mr. Ashraf El Nour is responsible and accountable for providing policy direction and guidance on programme, management, administrative and financial oversight and support to IOM Country Offices in the Southern Africa Region, as well as overall management of the Regional Office, which covers 15 countries, namely Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In his capacity, the

Regional Director, also overseas relations with the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC). He actively participates as a member of the United Nations Regional Director Group for the East and Southern Africa.

Other key stakeholders in the region for which the Regional Director works with are migrant communities, national governments, United Nations (UN) agencies, regional organizations and institutions, as well as non- governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs), the research communities and donor agencies.

In addition, the beneficiaries of IOM’s programmatic interventions in Southern Africa include regional bodies, central and local government stakeholders, community leaders and members, the diaspora, NGOs and CSOs, as well as refugees, irregular migrants, internally displaced persons, returnees and trafficked persons.

Mr. El Nour has 25 years of work experience in diverse positions at both headquarters and field level; working on policy development as well as crisis management and post conflict recovery. Prior to his current appointment, Mr. El Nour was the Director of the IOM Office to the United Nations in New York (May 2015 until May 2022), IOM’s Regional Director for East and Horn of Africa from 2013-2015, Regional Representative for East and Central Africa from 2007 to 2012 and a Special Assistant with the Office of the Director General from 2006 to 2007. He has also worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a Senior Recovery Adviser at the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery in Geneva. Mr. El Nour started his career in 1989 at CARE International before joining IOM in 1991.

Born in Khartoum in 1963, Mr El Nour holds a master’s degree in political science from Aligarh Muslim University in India.
Charles Mbuli Boliko

Charles Mbuli Boliko

FAO
Representative for Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles
 
Charles Boliko joined FAO headquarters in 1997 as Personnel Officer in the Human Resources Division and thereafter served as FAO Liaison Officer with the UN in New York, in charge of macro-economic policy questions, humanitarian assistance, and human resource management. He later served as Senior Attaché de Cabinet in the Office of the Director-General. From 2009 to 2013, he was Chief of the Recruitment and Staffing Branch in the Human Resources Division at FAO headquarters. In 2013, he was appointed Director of the FAO Liaison Office in Japan where he has significantly contributed to improving FAO’s visibility and collaboration with public, private and non-State actors. He holds a PhD in International Development from Nagoya University in Japan.
Eunice G. Kamwendo UN ECA

Eunice G. Kamwendo

UN ECA
Director of the Southern Africa Sub Regional Office
 
Eunice G. Kamwendo was appointed as Director for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Southern Africa Sub Regional Office in Lusaka, Zambia. Ms. Kamwendo has devoted more than 20 years of her professional career to economic development, analysis and policy research both with the UN and externally. Within the UN System, she spent the last 14 years with UNDP at global and regional levels in New York and South Africa. Ms. Kamwendo was most recently a Senior Strategic Advisor, leading research, strategy and analysis for UNDP Africa in New York; Policy Advisor with UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy also in New York; and Policy Advisor for East and Southern Africa for UNDP’s Regional Service Centre in South Africa. Before that, she worked as an Economic Governance Research Analyst for the continental African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) in South Africa where she contributed to the first country reviews of South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria and Zambia. Prior to her international career, Eunice was a Senior Economist and special advisor to the Secretary to the Treasury on macroeconomic issues and engagements with the IMF in the Ministry of Finance in Malawi.
Frederick Muia

Frederick Muia

ILO
Country Director for Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles
 
Mr. Frederick MUIA has been appointed Director of the ILO Country Office for Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles, with effect from 1 September 2023.

Born on 18 April 1969, Mr MUIA holds a Diplôme d'Études Approfondies (DEA) in Business Communication and Sociolinguistics from the Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, France, and a master's degree in Language and Communication Sciences from the Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France.

A global labour, employment and project management executive with over 22 years' experience, focusing on private sector development, employers' organisations, capacity development, stakeholder engagement and tripartism, civil society, governments, the United Nations, bilateral and multilateral organisations, Mr MUIA has recognised expertise and experience in skills development, entrepreneurship and job creation. He has recently developed a keen interest in the digital economy and social media as a means of influencing policy.

Before joining the ILO, Mr MUIA was:
- Project Manager at ERS Global, a project of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- Teacher in the training programme for administrators, Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC), Lagos,
Nigeria.
- Partner, African Union Partnership for Youth Empowerment "1 million by 2021" Initiative, Geneva,
Switzerland and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- Senior Adviser for Africa, International Organisation of Employers, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Head of Investment and Government Relations, French Trade Commission for East Africa, Nairobi, Kenya.
- Lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Mr. MUIA is married and has three children.
Haitian Lu

Haitian Lu

UN DESA
Head of Office, Capacity Development Programme Management Office
 
 
 
Mr. Haitian Lu leads the Capacity Development Programme Management Office (CDPMO) of DESA. The Office manages and coordinates the capacity development function of the Department through the formulation, coordination and implementation of the Department’s capacity development activities for the coherent and integrated delivery of capacity development programmes, projects and other activities and the promotion of direct and effective translation of intergovernmental outcomes into the operation programmes.


The Office supports the Under-Secretary-General in his role as Programme Manager of the United Nations Development Account, and in promoting strategic cooperation and partnerships within the Secretariat and with the Account, and in promoting strategic cooperation and partnerships within the Secretariat and with the United Nations development system at large, including the resident coordinator system, to promote more coherent, coordinated and cross-sectoral support for the implementation of the two agendas.
Joseph Rostand Olinga Biwole

Joseph Rostand Olinga Biwole

IFAD
Representative and Country Director Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles
 
Mr. Joseph Rostand Olinga Biwole works as Representative and Country Director for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Madagascar; also covering Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles. Prior to this, he was Acting Country Director for Burundi from March to December 2021. From September 2019 to February 2021, he was Programme Officer at IFAD’s Sub-Regional Office for East Africa and the Indian Ocean in Nairobi-Kenya. He joined IFAD in 2014 as Programme Officer, where he held a portfolio covering Cameroon, the Central African Republic and Gabon.

Prior to joining IFAD in 2014, he worked for national and international development and humanitarian organizations. From 2000 to 2004 he worked in Cameroon with different NGOs. In 2004, he joined the UN Inter-Agency Unit for Coordination of Reintegration in Burundi; worked as Reintegration Officer and as Programme Officer of the UNV Country Programme, respectively. In 2009 he moved to Chad to serve in the UNDP Recovery Programme in eastern Chad as Technical Specialist in charge of socioeconomic recovery. He was promoted in 2010 to Recovery Programme Coordinator and in 2013 to Head of the Field Coordination Office in Eastern Chad, respectively.

M. Olinga Biwole holds an engineering degree in agronomy from the University of Dschang / Cameroon. He also holds a Diploma in Local Development from the ILO Training Centre/Turin-Italy as well as a Master of Arts in International Relations and Affairs from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy/Tufts University in Massachusetts-United States.
Josiane Yaguibou

Josiane Yaguibou

UNFPA
Country Director for Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles
 
Ms Josiane Yaguibou joined the UNFPA Country Office in Madagascar on July 19, 2023 as Representative and Country Director for Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles.

Before Madagascar, Josiane served as the UNFPA Country Representative in Togo and in Mali. Prior to that, she was the Representative (a.i) for UNFPA in Eritrea and the Family Planning Policy Adviser overseeing twenty-three East and Southern African countries, based in Johanesburg.

Josiane is a seasoned Development professional with over two decades of increasing leadership, management, advocacy, operational expertise providing support to challenging multifaceted complex environments implementing triple Nexus Humanitarian Operations. She brings to Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles, a solid background in national and international project management implementing triple Nexus humanitarian operations, advancing women, adolescent and young people access to sexual and reproductive rights, and advocating to eliminate gender-based violence. She is a Champion for mobilizing resources in defiant circumstances, in donor orphan contexts while fostering private partnerships and raising first time ever funds.

Josiane holds a Master degree in Economics from Paris IX DAUPHINE University, France and a Bachelor of Administration from the University Quebec in Montreal, Canada.
Jude Padayachy

Jude Padayachy

UNAIDS
Country Director for Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles
 
Prior to his nomination to the post of UNAIDS Country Director for Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles, Jude Padayachy was the principal strategic information adviser at the UNAIDS Headquarters in Geneva from 2013 to 2017. He has served in the same function from 2010 to 2013 in the UNAIDS multicountry office for Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles, and from 2003 to 2007 in UNAIDS South Africa.
Maxime Houinato

Maxime Houinato

UN Women
Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office
 
Maxime has been UN Women’s Country Representative in Uganda since 2018 where he contributed to a significant growth of programme through the successful implementation of a robust resource mobilization strategy. Before going to Uganda, Maxime has also served as UN Women's Deputy Regional Director of WCARO (6 years: 2008-2014 in Dakar) and Country Representative in Mali (4 years: 2014-2018 in Bamako). Maxime has been an active member of the UN Regional Quality & Support Assurance (QSA) Team of the UNDG in West Africa, and a key contributor to UN’s "Deliver as One" (DaO) model. He has supported the design and implementation of a series of positive legislation, public policies, and large-scale programmes to promote women’s leadership, the involvement of women in business and critical value-chains as well as ending violence against women and girls. Maxime holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Abomey-Calavi University in Benin, a Master of Arts (MA) in International Development from Brandeis University in the US and a Doctorate (PhD) in Applied Sociology from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal.
Monique Ekoko

Monique Ekoko

UNHCR
Representative of the South Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO)
 
Monique Ekoko is a Cameroonian national and is the newly appointed Representative of the South Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO) based in Pretoria, South Africa that was established as a result of UNHCR’s Decentralisation and Regionalisation process.
Ms. Ekoko has just ended her mission as Representative of the UNHCR Multi-Country (MCO Office) in Dakar, Senegal which she has headed since March 2020. Previously, she was Representative in Malawi from July 2015 to December 2019 and prior to that she served as Deputy Representative to the UNHCR Representation to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (RAUECA) based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Ms Ekoko joined UNHCR in 1993 and has gained 29 solid years of experience working with UNHCR in various capacities including holding several managerial positions. She has served UNHCR in many countries namely Kenya, Serbia, Switzerland, South Africa, Botswana, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Malawi mostly working in the areas of legal protection and policy.
Ms Ekoko has a passion for working with marginalised groups including asylum seekers and refugees and has championed this cause in most of her assignments.
She holds a bachelor’s degree (LLB) in English Private Law, a post-graduate Diploma in International Shipping Law, and a Master’s degree (LLM) in International Maritime Law from the University the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon and the from University of London in the United Kingdom respectively.
Neil Walsh

Neil Walsh

UNODC
Regional Representative Eastern Africa
 
Neil Walsh joined the United Nations in January 2016 and, since December 2021, is Regional Representative for UNODC in Eastern Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya.Neil is Head of Mission for 13 countries in the East Africa and Western Indian Ocean Region. He and his staff deliver the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s Strategic Vision for Africa's response to crime, corruption, terrorism, security and health threats. From 2016-2021, Neil led UNODC's global Cybercrime, Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism Department in Vienna.Prior to joining UNDOC, Neil served for over 15 years, leading covert operations in the UK National Crime Agency countering international serious organised crime and terrorism including long-term postings to Europol HQ in The Hague, Netherlands, and the British High Commission in Valletta, Malta. Neil is 43, comes from Belfast, Northern Ireland and is married with 4 young children. He holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Psychology & Criminology and an M.Sc. in Criminal Investigation. He is also an experienced Emergency Medical Technician. In his spare time, Neil advocates for bowel cancer (colorectal cancer), brain hemorrhage, sepsis, pulmonary embolism, and crohn’s disease awareness (having survived all of these conditions).
Nikhil Seth

Nikhil Seth

UNITAR
Assistant Secretary-General, Executive Director
 
 
 
Mr. Nikhil Seth joined UNITAR as its Executive Director on Oct 1, 2015. During his term UNITAR has grown significantly in the number of beneficiaries of its services and its work has been aligned to the pillars of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.

Before assuming the post of the UNITAR Executive Director, Nikhil Seth was the Director of the Division for Sustainable Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) at the United Nations Secretariat in New York. In this role he served as head of the Rio+20 secretariat and of the secretariat for the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States, spearheading the preparations for these conferences in Rio, Brazil, and Apia, Samoa. He was also closely engaged in coordinating and advancing their follow-up.

In the United Nations Mr. Seth served as the Director for ECOSOC, Secretary of the Economic and Financial Committee (2nd Committee), Secretary of ECOSOC and with the USG of DESA. He was closely involved with many of the Summits and Conferences of the 1990’s – as a delegate from India and as part of the support secretariat.
Oumar Sylla

Oumar Sylla

UN-Habitat
Regional Director for Africa
 
Oumar has more than 18 years of academic and practical experience in land, natural resources, conflict resolution, urban development, regional cooperation and partnership. Prior to being appointed as Acting Director for the Regional Office for Africa, Oumar was coordinator of the Urban Legislation, Land and Governance Branch within UN-Habitat. As the Leader of the Land and GLTN Unit, Oumar has led the efforts towards improving tenure security for the vulnerable through the expansion of GLTN’s work at the country level; advocating for wider incorporation of land governance in the overall SDGs agenda towards bridging the gap between rural and urban land nexus, and to build strong partnership on land governance. The Land and GLTN Unit is also supporting tools implementation at country levels to support land administration and policy development.
Pedro Manuel Moreno

Pedro Manuel Moreno

UNCTAD
Deputy Secretary-General
 
 
 
Pedro Manuel Moreno of Spain was named Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) by the United Nations Secretary-General on 4 November 2022.

He has over 20 years of experience of working for multilateral and intergovernmental organizations in programme, management and strategic positions both in the field and in headquarters. Mr. Moreno’s extensive experience includes having worked as Deputy Secretary-General of the Communication for Development Committee at the Spanish Commission for UNESCO (1999-2004) and for the UN Development Programme (2004-2014), including in Ecuador, in New York as part of the Human Development Report team and in the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean. He helped drive UN Human Development Reports and supported programmes on poverty eradication, Millennium Development Goals as well as human development initiatives.
In 2014, he was appointed Director of the Cabinet of the Ibero-American General Secretariat in Madrid, an intergovernmental organization bringing together 22 member states of Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. He coordinated key political processes such as summits of heads of state in Mexico (2014), Colombia (2016), Guatemala (2018) and Andorra (2020), over 30 ministerial summits and South-South cooperation projects in the region.

In September 2021 he was named Chief of Staff and Director of the Office of UNCTAD’s Secretary-General.
Mr. Moreno holds a master’s degree in public policy and political sociology from the Ecole Doctorale at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) and a master’s degree in international cooperation and project management from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He has a bachelor’s degree with honors in political communications and international relations. He has taught at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and completed specialized training at Columbia University and other institutions.

Mr. Moreno was awarded the Cross of the Royal Order of Isabel la Católica, the highest civil decoration granted by the King of Spain to people who have made outstanding contributions to the improvement of cooperation among countries.

He is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Italian.
Rainer Frauenfeld

Rainer Frauenfeld

UNOPS
Director Kenya Multi-Country Office
 
 
 
Mr. Rainer Frauenfeld is the Director of UNOPS Kenya Multi-Country Office (KEMC). He previously held the position of Adviser for Risk Reduction and Recovery in UNOPS Headquarters in Copenhagen.

Rainer began his career with the UN, as a JPO at UNDP in Sri Lanka in 1996 and has since worked both within and outside the UN in a range of post-disaster and post-conflict settings. In 1998, Rainer joined UNOPS to continue work on the Jaffna programme. Subsequently he worked on humanitarian and stabilization matters for a number of UN agencies in East Timor, Ethiopia, Haiti and Afghanistan and a brief assignment with the International Water Association in London.

In early 2005, Rainer moved to Sri Lanka to re-establish and then run the UNOPS office after the Indian Ocean Tsunami struck. The work included injecting money into tsunami-affected communities by hiring local people to reconstruct damaged infrastructure, implement environmental and infrastructure initiatives, and manage large segments of the conflict-related humanitarian response with partners.

In early 2010, after the earthquake in Haiti, Rainer led the first phase of the UNOPS emergency response focusing mainly on building shelters and assessing structural damage to people’s homes and established UNOPS in Haiti. He has also supported the development and management of UNOPS operations in Afghanistan and overseen UNOPS country programmes in Indonesia and the Maldives.
Rose Mwebaza

Rose Mwebaza

UNEP
Director and Regional Representative for Africa
 
Prior to taking up her role as the Director and Regional Representative of UNEP Africa Office, Ms. Rose Mwebaza served as the Director and Advisory Board Secretary of the United Nations Climate Technology Centre & Network (CTCN), the implementation arm of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Technology Mechanism.

Ms. Mwebaza was a lecturer at Makerere University between 1997 and 2008 where she also served as the Head of Department for Commercial Law, and Deputy Dean of the Law School. She then served as the Regional Policy Adviser for Eastern and Southern Africa on Climate Change in the Environment and Energy Group, at the United Nations Development Programme Bureau for Development Policy in Johannesburg, South Africa. She later served as Programme Manager for UNDP’s regional office for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she was also designated as Advisor to the Chairperson of the African Union and Advisor to the Committee of Heads of State and Government on Climate Change. Rose then joined the banking sector and served as Chief Natural Resources Officer at the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Ms. Mwebaza holds a Ph.D. in Environment and Natural Resource Governance from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; a master’s degree in international Comparative Law (With a Certificate of Academic Excellence) from the University of Florida, U.S.A, and a Bachelor of Laws Degree (LL. B, Hons.) from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. She is a Carl Duisburg Research fellow at the World Conservation Union (IUCN), a member of the UN Master Minds, a Member of the Association of Environmental Law Lecturers in Africa, and a founding member of the Network for African Women Environmentalists.
Stephen Bainous Kargbo

Stephen Bainous Kargbo

UNIDO
Representative and Secretariat of the East African Community (EAC)
 
Stephen Bainous Kargbo has an accumulated national and international work experience of over 30 years in teaching/research, organizational change and development work. He has held various positions in NGOs, Academia and the UN system (UNDP and UNIDO). Before his current position as UNIDO Representative to Tanzania, Mauritius and the Secretariat of the East African Community (EAC), he worked in the UNIDO Regional Office in Ethiopia, overseeing operations in Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, as well as activities related to the African Union Commission. Stephen holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics both from the Georg-August University of Goettingen, Germany.