Our Team in Egypt

Mr. AbdulHakim Elwaer, is FAO Assistant Director- General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa.

Mr. Elwaer, a national of Libya, holds a Ph.D. of Philosophy in Environmental Chemistry from Sheffield University, the United Kingdom, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Organizational Leadership from the Gestalt Centre of Organizations and Systems Development in the United States, and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering and Science Technology from the University of Sabha in Libya.

Mr. Elwaer served as Secretary of Environmental General Authority (Minister of Environment) of the Government of Libya in Tripoli and was elected President of the African Ministerial Congress on Environment (AMCEN) from 2004 to 2006.

In 2007, he joined the African Union as Director for Human Resources, Science and Technology, and became Director for Administration and Human Resources Management in 2009.

During his career at the African Union (AU), Mr. Elwaer has supervised and managed the Establishment of several African unique initiatives and institutions.

Prior to joining the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), he served as Adviser to the President on Global Advocacy and Partnerships at the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he also served as the IsDB Spokesperson and Director of Cooperation, Partnerships, Regional Integration and Resource Mobilization from 2014 to 2017. He was further appointed IsDB’s Sherpa at G20 and Heads of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).

Adam B. Elhiraika (PhD – Glasgow University) is the Director of UNECA’s Subregional Office for North Africa. He previously served as Director of Macroeconomics and Governance Division of UNECA where he directly led the work of ECA on macroeconomic policy, development planning, economic governance and public finance and coordinated key flagship publications including the Economic Report on Africa, The Economic Governance Report and the Sustainable Development Report. He recently served as Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Sudan (2020-2022) on leave from the UN. Before joining ECA in 2004, he was a Research Economist at the Islamic Development Bank (Saudi Arabia), Associate Professor of Economics at the United Arab Emirates University, Senior Lecturer at the University of Swaziland and the University of Fort Hare (South Africa) and Assistant Professor at Gezira University (Sudan). Mr. Elhiraika has a PhD in economics and several publications in internationally refereed journals as well as monographs and books.

Adel Mohamed Darwish, the recently appointed Director, Regional Office of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for the Arab States, covering 22 Arab countries, has more than 20 years’ experience in the field of telecommunications, spanning incumbent operator, startup operator, and regulator. In his different roles, Mr. Darwish has been involved with international relations, not only in the ITU, but also in organizations including ICANN, GSMA, the GCC Council, the League of Arab States, Arab Regulatory Network (AREGNET), and SAMENA Council.
Based in Bahrain, Mr. Darwish has held leadership positions in major conferences at the ITU and outside. He is known for his leadership of the GCC Council Roaming Working Group from 2009 to 2020, during which time the
group achieved a major reduction in roaming rates in the region. Mr Darwish was also active in international bilateral projects and negotiations both within the Arab region and beyond.

Mr. Darwish, with the experience from both private and public sectors, is committed to strengthening regional ICT evolution as well as further enhancing the role of the ITU at the Arab regional level, coordinating globally with other
regions. His vision is to help achieve an information society, empowered by the interconnected world, where telecommunication/information and communication technologies enable and accelerate social, economic and
environmentally sustainable growth and development for everyone.

Ahmed Rezk started his work career in 2004, joining the Centre for Economic and Financial Research and Studies (CEFRS) as Economic Researcher after graduating from the Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences at Cairo University. He then joined the Industrial Modernization Centre (IMC) as an Industry Development Expert. Then, he was appointed as the manager of the National Policy Support Unit of IMC. Later, he took the position of Deputy CEO for Policy and International Cooperation at the Export Development Authority.
In 2018, he joined the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as the National Programme Officer at the Regional Hub Office in Egypt. By 2022, he was promoted to Deputy Regional Representative at the same office.

He has a M.S in Euro Mediterranean Studies from the Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences, Cairo University, and an Advanced Certificate in International Trade from the UK Institute of Export. Through the past 15 years, he developed substantial experience supporting productive development and supervised commissioned work in this area. His essential expertise includes market studies, export plans, development strategies, and policy reform plans. He is acquainted with governmental entities, international organizations, donor-funded and development programs.

Mr Fracassetti brings to the position over 25 years of management and development experience in international organizations and has a track record of strong partnerships with governments and development partners in transition and middle-income countries.
His last post has been as UNDP Resident Representative in Azerbaijan. His prior assignments in UNDP include Deputy Resident Representative in Azerbaijan from 2016 to 2018, Deputy Resident Representative in North Macedonia from 2011 to 2016, Deputy Resident Representative in Croatia from 2006 to 2011 and Assistant Resident Representative in Belarus from 2004 to 2006.
Before UNDP, he served with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1996 to 1998 as Senior Election Officer and from 1998 to 2000 as Senior Political Advisor, and in Croatia from 2000 to 2004 as OSCE Spokesperson and Head of Public Affairs.
Mr. Fracassetti is a national of Italy. He holds a Master’s degree in Politics and Administration of the European Union from the College of Europe in Bruges, a BA in International Relations from the University of Sussex and a Certificate of Political Studies from Science Po Strasbourg. He is married and has two sons.

Alex Segura-Ubiergo has been the Senior Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund in Egypt since October 2023. Prior to that he was a Strategic Communications Advisor in the Communications Department of the IMF. He has also been Advisor in the African Department where he had been mission chief for Cabo Verde, the Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Mozambique, as well as Resident Representative in Senegal, The Gambia and Mozambique. Earlier in his career Alex had been Deputy Division Chief in FAD, mission chief for Ecuador and senior economist for Brazil (WHD). Alex is the author of The Political Economy of the Welfare State in Latin America (Cambridge University Press) and co-author of Good Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa. Opportunities and Lessons, among other publications. He holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees in both Economics and Political Science from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a PhD, with distinction, from Columbia University.

Oliver Cruz has an extensive professional experience who, before coming to Cairo, served as IOM’s Senior Policy and Liaison Officer in Athens, Greece. Carlos has also worked at Headquarters in the Office of the Director General as Special Assistant to the Deputy Director General.
Prior to joining the IOM in 2012, he worked at the Kofi Annan Foundation, a non-for-profit organization established by the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, the late Kofi Annan, to promote better global governance and more effective responses to emerging threats.
Previously, he worked at DARA, a non-profit organization in Madrid, where he was part of the team that established the Humanitarian Response Index, which measures the performance of the OECD/DAC humanitarian donor countries.
Carlos started his professional career at the Club de Madrid, an organization of more than 100 former heads of state and government working to promote and improve the well-being of people around the world.
He holds a bachelor and master’s degree in diplomacy and International Relations from Seton Hall University in NJ, USA. During his teenagerhood, he lived in Cairo for over 3 years and attended the Lycée Français du Caire in Maadi.

Mr. Charles Sebukeera is the Regional Science Policy Coordinator for Africa at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, working with a number of countries on the continent to ensure integration of environmental sustainability into their National Development Plans (NDP) and the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks.

Mr. Sebukeera is also UNEP’s focal point and Agency Representative on the UNCT for Uganda and Egypt.

He has over 36 years of national and international working experience in environment and sustainable development and a pioneer of some of the most significant institutional arrangements for environmental management on the continent, some of which have been benchmarked by the UN, World Bank and other development agencies in a number of countries, for example National Environment Management Authorities and Environment Information Networks.

Moreover, Mr. Sebukeera has extensive experience in strategic environmental information packaging for decision support, including GIS applications and remote sensing for data visualization. He is directly responsible for UNEP Early Warning and Assessment activities in Africa and building capacity for evidence-based decision making for local and national governments.

Ms Cristina Albertin is the UNODC Regional Representative for the Middle East and North Africa. Working for UNODC since 1994, Ms Albertin has served in different capacities in Peru and at UNODC Headquarters in Vienna (Regional Section Latin America and the Caribbean) before becoming a Representative in Bolivia, South Asia, and Nigeria. Before joining UNODC, she worked for three years with the World Food Programme in Bolivia.

Dr Nima Saeed Abid has been appointed to be the Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Egypt on 21 December 2023. Dr Abid was appointed as the Representative of WHO Country Office in Sudan in August 2020 – November 2023. Previously he was acting WHO Representative in Country Office Syria and before that in Pakistan.

Dr Abid led Polio Eradication Programme in Pakistan for 10 years and also worked as Team Leader Polio Eradication Programme at Regional Center of WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region

Before joining WHO Dr. Abid was Director General of Public Health and Primary Health Care in his home country Iraq.

Dr Abid holds a degree in Medicine and Surgery and Iraq Board in Community Medicine

Dr. Walid Kamal is a medical doctor graduated from Cairo university in 1996, he has a fellowship of epidemiology and has a health care management and Infection control diploma from the American University in Cairo.
He brings over fifteen years experience in the field of public health and infectious diseases. He started his career in 2002 as Monitoring and Evaluation Officer in the Ministry of Health and Population and held many positions until appointed as the National AIDS program Director in late 2013. He led the process of restructuring Egypt national response and updating the National Strategic Plan (NSP) 2015 and 2018-2022 as well as the related M&E Plan and tools.
Prior to joining UNAIDS in 2020, he worked as Program Manager at UNDP for the Global Fund for HIV and TB project in Egypt July 2019.
He contributed as team leader for many surveys and researches related to HIV and key population as Population Size Estimate, integrated bio behavior survey, HIV and hepatitis in Egypt.
Dr. Kamal conducted and contributed to the preparation of many national guidelines for different topics such as counselling, care & antiretroviral therapy, sexual and reproductive health (SRH). He participates as faculty member on setting the national strategic plan and STI national framework.
Dr. Kamal has extensive experience on preparing training curriculum and manuals as well as conducted many studies on HIV and AIDS related sociology and behaviors of affected population and Co-infections.
He was assigned by the Ministry of Health and Population as core member in the National HIV Scientific Committee in Egypt and representing UNAIDS in the independent oversight committee.

Dr. Hanan Hamdan has been appointed as the Representative of the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, to Egypt and to the League of Arab States in March 2023. Previously, she was the Representative of UNHCR in Tunisia, and the Head of UNHCR Office in the State of Kuwait. During her service, she was simultaneously assigned the post and duties of Acting Resident Coordinator for the United Nations Country Team.

Prior to her current appointment, Dr. Hamdan worked at UNHCR in a number of different posts and positions in Geneva, Cairo, Beirut, Algeria, Baghdad and Amman as a consultant and legal officer, serving refugees.

Previously, Dr. Hamdan was a lecturer and senior consultant at the American University of Beirut.

Dr. Hamdan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Studies and Public Administration from the American University of Beirut. She received her Master of Arts in International Conflict Analysis and Doctorate degree in International Relations specializing in Refugee Studies from the University of Kent, Canterbury.

Mr Oechslin is an economist holding a postgraduate certificate in Mathematical Economy and Econometrics from the Pantheon-Assas University (Paris). He joined ILO in 2012 as Senior Specialist for Employers’ Activities for the North African region. Prior to that, he worked for more than 13 years as Senior Adviser for Europe at the International Organization of Employers.

Jean-Luc Tonglet is the Head of the OCHA Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa in Cairo, a role he has been assuming since April 2024. A Belgian national, Jean-Luc Tonglet has 35 years of experience in humanitarian affairs. He has been serving with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for more than 28 years in Angola, Johannesburg (Regional Office for Southern Africa), Cairo (Regional office for the Middle East and North Africa), Amman (Regional Office for the Syria crisis), the Philippines, and Gaziantep, Turkey (in relation to the Syria crisis). Prior to his engagement with the United Nations, Jean-Luc Tonglet worked with non-governmental organisations in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Angola.

Mr. Jean-Pierre de Margerie is a seasoned humanitarian and development professional specializing in food security, with over 30 years in the field. Throughout his career with the World Food Programme (WFP), he has held numerous roles, including WFP Representative and Country Director in North Korea, Rwanda, and Cambodia, and most recently as Deputy Director of the Programme Division at WFP headquarters in Italy. He has also served as the Deputy Country Director in Nepal and East Timor, and as Regional Programme Advisor in Thailand.
Mr. de Margerie holds an M.A. in International Affairs from Carleton University, a B.A. in Political Science from Laval University, a B.A. in Business Administration from Sherbrooke University, and a Certificate in French Civilization from the Sorbonne.
A Canadian national, Mr. de Margerie is fluent in French, English, and Italian. He is married with two children and has a professional interest in innovation, science and technology, capacity building, South-South cooperation, public-private alliances, and developing strategic partnerships to address food security and nutrition issues.

Jeremy Hopkins is half Kenyan and half British and graduated with a MA in Arabic and Social Anthropology (Edinburgh) and a MSc in Development Studies (SOAS – University of London).

He started his career with WFP in Somalia then moved to UNICEF where he worked in Somalia managing programmes at the field level in Child Protection, Youth Engagement, children affected by HIV and related Behaviour Change Communication. He continued to work on Child Protection in Mozambique with a specific focus on HIV.
More recently Jeremy was acting as a Representative for UNICEF in South Sudan and has just completed his tour of duty as UNICEF Representative in Burundi August 2020.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Marguerite El Helou (Margo El Helou) of Lebanon as Director of the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Cairo. She assumed her new duties on 1 June 2023.
A field office of the United Nations Department of Global Communications, the United Nations Information Centre in Cairo provides services to Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Ms. El Helou has 25 years of experience in communications, including eight years as Director, UNIC Beirut. She also worked for the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. Prior to the United Nations, she was responsible for communications in the Near East for Procter & Gamble and a marketing manager for several companies.
Ms. El Helou has extensive experience in designing and implementing communication strategies for the United Nations in the Middle East and North Africa. She has developed communications campaigns on the Sustainable Development Goals, climate change, women’s empowerment, migration, racism and hate speech. She has worked with both traditional and digital media, including the web and social media platforms. She also has a wide knowledge of the media scene in the Middle East and North Africa region as well as a deep understanding of the political, economic and social issues in the region.
Ms. El Helou holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from the American University of Beirut as well as certificates in media, television, external relations, marketing, and business solutions. She is fluent in English, French and Arabic.

Mr. Abdelgadir served IFAD for more than 17 years as Country Director for Bosnia, Jordan, Iraq, Uzbekistan and Yemen. In this capacity, he led the design of a number of country strategic opportunities programmes (COSOPs), designed and supervised more than 27 projects in the five counties. His responsibilities include managing projects under the portfolios; promoting capacity building of rural people to participate in local and national policy and advocating for programmes that improve the access of poor rural people to natural resources; agricultural technologies; financial services; markets; employment opportunities and enterprise development.
Before joining the Fund in 2005, Abdelgadir served in the FAO Regional Office in Cairo. He has contributed to many policies in the Near East region, including those related to agricultural trade, market access and food safety. His earlier positions include Director of the Economic and Social Research Institute of the National Centre for Research in Sudan, Director of the Finance and Investment for the Gezira Scheme and faculty member at the University of Gezira in Sudan.
Abdelgadir holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Hohenheim in Germany.

Mr. Abubaker is currently the ICAO Middle East Regional Director, responsible for maintaining continuous liaison with the States to which it is accredited and with appropriate organizations, regional civil aviation bodies, sub-regional bodies, UN Agencies, and programs operating in the Region.
Mr. Abubaker is an aviation enthusiast, his passion for aviation started 30 years ago, through this period he acquired a solid aviation experience and holed a various advisory and leadership roles allowing him to achieve his ongoing goals by supporting States to achieve their strategic objectives, design policies and make decisions within the context of global, regional, and national plans.
He started his career in aviation by joining Gulf Aircraft Maintenance Company, where he held various positions till his promotion as senior engineer.
In the beginning of the establishment of the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Mr. Abubaker was appointed as the first UAE Airworthiness Inspector, where he played an active role in the development of GCAA’s laws and regulations. He has been appointed also as Director of the Civil Aviation Safety and Security Department and chosen as Chairman of the Safety Committee for Arab States and entrusted with the chairmanship of the Committee for the Development of Civil Aviation Systems in Gulf Cooperation Council.
Then he joined Etihad Airways as Executive Vice President for Security, Safety and Quality, and has been elected to be a council security member in International Air Transport Association (IATA), after that he was appointed CEO of Istithmar World Aviation/Dubai World Group, to manage the investments of the domestic and foreign aviation sector in Dubai World. During this short period, he contributed to transforming the company back to a profitability.
Then, he was appointed as Director International Affairs' and civil Aviation in Abu Dhabi Department of Transport, responsible for bilateral air service agreements between the concerned States.
Mr. Abubaker is an Aeronautical Engineer earned his degree from United Kingdom and obtained the engineering accreditation license from United Kingdom, United States, and the United Arab Emirates, also He holds a master’s degree in management from USA.

Mohammad Ali ALNSOUR is currently the Chief of the Middle East and North Africa Section at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. He has also served as adviser to the High Commissioner for Human Rights (201415). Prior to that, he held the posts of Director at the Legal Department of the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2013), Human Rights Advisor to the Jordanian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (2009-13) and
Senior Officer in the cabinet of the Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs (2008-9). He served at the Jordanian Permanent Mission to the League of Arab States in Cairo, Egypt (2003-8) where he participated in the drafting of the Arab Charter on Human Rights and served as an elected member of the Charter’s committee. He also worked as legal researcher in the Office of the Prime Minister from 1998 to 2001. He is a lawyer and member of the Jordanian Bar Association. He holds a Master’s degree in International Law and Human Rights, Master’s degree in Conflict Resolution, Higher diploma in Diplomacy, and BA in Law.

He is a Jordanian national, married with three children.

Mr. Mounir Tabet (Canada) assumed his official duties as Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) on 7 September 2018.
Prior to that, Mr. Tabet served as UNDP Country Director in Iraq (2016-2018), where he oversaw the Stabilization and Transition Programme.
From 2013 to 2016, Mr. Tabet served as the United Nations and UNDP Resident Coordinator in Tunisia, where he provided support for the transition process including electoral support, constitution-making, parliamentary effectiveness and anti-corruption.
Mr. Tabet previously served as UNDP Country Director in Egypt (2007-2013) where he led the support to development efforts. From 2004 to 2007, he was Senior Programme Adviser at the Regional Bureau for Arab States at UNDP headquarters in New York.
Previously, Mr. Tabet was the Edward S. Mason Fellow at Harvard University – Kennedy School of Government. There, he completed a master's degree in public administration. He holds a master's degree in economics from the University of Ottawa.
Between 1989 and 2003, Mr. Tabet served in a variety of country and headquarter positions with UNDP. Prior to joining UNDP, Mr. Tabet worked with the North-South Institute, the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa and the University of Ottawa.

Ms. Nuria Sanz assumed her post as Director of UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science in the Arab States, Cluster Office for Egypt and Sudan and as UNESCO Representative in Egypt on 20th October 2022. Ms. Nuria Sanz has been Head and Representative of the UNESCO Office in Mexico since November 2013. She has a PhD in history and archaeology from Universidad Complutense de Madrid and La Sapienza in Rome.

For over 20 years, Ms. Sanz has worked in international organizations such as the European Commission, the Council of Europe, and UNESCO, and a large focus of her work has been on the field of the protection of cultural and natural heritage. From 2002 to 2013, she was Chief of the Latin American and Caribbean Unit of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Paris, France. She has edited more than 20 World Heritage publications and has carried out extensive literary work in cultural cooperation, and on culture and development issues.

For 9 years, Ms. Sanz coordinated the largest World Heritage nomination project in the history of the 1972 World Heritage Convention: the Qhhapaq Ñan Andean Road System. The serial nomination was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2014 and was selected as a project that exemplified the good practice of cultural integration of indigenous people.

Nadeen Gamil began her career in the corporate sector as a finance specialist in the Pharmaceutical industry. After spending several years in the corporate sector and having created a diverse portfolio of professional business skills, Nadeen moved to the development sector and worked on several projects with national and international organizations. She discovered her passion for aid while working on a project to support Arabic speaking refugees transition and settle in Germany.
Upon her return to Egypt, Nadeen joined Humanity and Inclusion as the Country Controller, and later moved to UN Women to support the Global Migration unit in research on Gender, Disaster Recovery and Climate Change. Over the past two years, Nadeen has been serving as the UNV Partnership Coordinator in WHO Regional Office for Eastern Mediterranean. Nadeen holds a graduate diploma in Social Sciences & Women’s studies from the American University in Cairo.

Her key areas of expertise include partnerships, human resources, multi-level coordination and programme management.

Ms. Achkar brings more than 20 years of experience in programme and project management and in leading humanitarian, and emergency operations and cooperation programs with international organizations and the public sector in the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific region.
Prior to joining UNDRR, she occupied the position of Senior Project Manager for Humanitarian Mine Action in Mali and DRC with UNOPS. Before that, she held the position of head of Sub-delegation with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in South Sudan. Nora also worked in ICRC in other capacities, and in Health Canada, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and various national mine action centers. She also briefly occupied the position of Political Affairs Officer with MINURSO (the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara).
As part of her work with the various organizations, she contributed and led disaster risk reduction activities, namely community-based risk reduction and early warning system development, explosive ordnance risk education and prevention. She also coordinated relevant working groups and contributed to many capacity building activities aimed at civil society, national institutions, and entities.

Nora holds a BA degree in Social Work (Saint Joseph University Beirut) and a Master’s Degree in Public Heath Environmental Policy Stream from the University of London. She also holds a series of certificates in disaster management from the World Bank Institute.

Mr. Othman Belbeisi is the Regional Director for IOM’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Regional Office based in Cairo, Egypt.
Prior to this appointment, Mr. Belbeisi served as the Senior Regional Adviser (SRA) for the MENA region as part of the Executive Office of the Director General in IOM Headquarters.
He has been with IOM since 2003 and has previously served as the Chief of Mission in Libya and Lebanon, and carried out multiple senior leadership tasks across the region.
Throughout his two-decade-long career with IOM, Mr. Belbeisi served as Emergency Coordinator for the Syrian and Libyan crises, and since 2022 he served as the Organization’s Special Envoy for Iraq. He has been also deployed to various MENA countries on numerous assignments.
In addition to his current duties as the Regional Director, Mr. Belbeisi currently serves as Special Coordinator for Syria, leading and coordinating activities undertaken by IOM in Syria and neighbouring countries as well as the Emergency Coordinator for the regional response to the crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Lebanon.
Mr. Belbeisi holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Lebanese American University in Beirut and has completed various national and international professional training and qualifications.

Dr. Patrick Goettner works in the Technical Cooperation Section of the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and has more than 7 years of experience working on inter-agency coordination and the implementation of trade and development programmes in different countries around the globe.
In the past, he worked as UNCTAD’s Regional Coordinator in Samoa for a regional trade and transparency project in the Pacific region. Prior to that he served in the Department of Environment of UNIDO working on programmes with a focus on environmental sustainability issues, green industry, as well as e-waste management.
He holds a master’s degree in business chemistry from the University of Muenster in Germany and a PhD in Economics from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany.

Mr. Patrick Jean GILABERT, Ph.D., is the UNIDO Representative of the Regional Office Hub in Egypt, responsible for its host country and oversees the coordination of UNIDO's programme and projects in Algeria, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia. Mr Gilabert is also accredited to countries without UNIDO country representatives, namely Djibouti, Libya and Yemen.

He is a development economist with 30 years of experience managing industrial and private sector development portfolios in Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan countries, including 15 years as UNIDO Representative in Madagascar, Vietnam and Brussels.

Mr. Gilabert began his career at the smart card company Gemplus Electronics in France and at the French Embassy Trade Commission in Tokyo, Japan and Colombo, Sri Lanka. He then joined the UNIDO country office in Hanoi, Vietnam, before being appointed as an investment promotion expert at UNIDO headquarters in Vienna, where for 10 years he developed technical cooperation projects in the Maghreb countries, sub-Saharan Africa and China.

He was then selected UNIDO Representative in Antananarivo, Madagascar, with coverage of the Union of Comoros, Seychelles and Mauritius (2007-2010), Representative in Hanoi, Vietnam (2010-2016), Deputy Representative to the United Nations in New York (2016-2018) and Representative to the European Union and the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) in Brussels (2018-2022). His last position was in the Policymaking Organs Division (PMO) at UNIDO headquarters.

Fluent in French and English, with knowledge of Spanish and Japanese, he holds a doctorate in information science - technology foresight and a master's degree in socioeconomics (University of Aix-Marseille, France), as well as the Trium Executive MBA from HEC Paris, the London School of Economics (LSE) and the New York University Stern School of Business (NYU Stern). He is co-author of several publications, including "Un défi pour la planète : Les Objectifs de développement durable en débat", prefaced by French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Le Drian (Institut de recherche pour le développement, 2017).

Patrick, national of France, enjoys participating in agricultural development, particularly olive growing, contemporary art and sport. He is married with one son and one daughter.

Prior to her current role, Ms Hedaya worked for eight years in programming at UNDP, in the area of decentralisation and local development. Prior to that, she was a Results based Management Officer at UNDP, working on strategic planning, monitoring, and evaluation. She serves as a member of board in a number of Urban related bodies, aligning urban initiatives in Egypt to the international principles and dialogues on sustainable urbanisation.

Ms Al-Jobury has 30 years of diversified experience with various United Nations regional, peacekeeping and humanitarian organisations, including ESCWA and UNSCOM (Iraq), UNTAC (Cambodia), UNOMOZ (Mozambique), UNMIH and UNSMIH (Haiti), IOM (Egypt and Iran) and UNODC (Egypt). She joined UNRWA in 2018 and has since been leading the engagement with the Government, the League of Arab States and the diplomatic community at large as well as coordinating services to Palestinian refugees who fled to Egypt from Syria.

Yves Sassenrath brings over 30 years of expertise in humanitarian and development work with international NGOs and multilateral organizations. He began his career as a volunteer in Romania and India, followed by assignments with Médecins Sans Frontières in the areas of humanitarian health and water/sanitation programs in Colombia and the Amazon basin.

After a stint at a European investment bank in Luxembourg, Yves joined the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) in Senegal as Assistant Resident Representative in 1999, focusing on local governance, decentralization, and microfinance.

In 2001, he joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York where he held several managerial positions, including External Relations and Resource Mobilization, Head of Operations & Advocacy of the Human Development Report Office and as special advisor of the Millennium (MDG) Trust Fund. As Chief Operating Officer covering the RC system, he contributed to the development of the BOS and the Common Back Office model, which is now implemented across many UN country operations.

Yves joined UNFPA in 2015 as Deputy Representative in Brazil, addressing the Venezuelan migrant crisis, and as Resident Representative in Haiti, where he managed the country’s fifth census and programs in maternal health and community violence reduction. Most recently, as Representative in Mali, he directed initiatives in health, protection, and youth peace and security.

Yves holds an MA in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Glasgow. Fluent in several languages, he is married with three children and has joined UNFPA in Egypt as Country Representative effective 1 August 2024.