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EADS OF AGENCIES

Below is a list of the current Heads of UN Agencies working in Somalia, and a brief biographical sketch and photo of each. They appear in alphabetical order according to UN Agency, with the UN Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia listed first.

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia
UNDP Resident Representative to Somalia
UN Designated Official for Somalia

Maxwell John Gaylard

Maxwell John Gaylard has served as  UN Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, as well as UNDP Somalia Resident Representative and UN Designated Official for Somalia in charge of UN security since April 2002.

Mr. Gaylard, who is a national of Australia, was from 1999-2002 Chief of the UN Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan. Prior to that, he was UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in northern Iraq from 1997-1999, and Director of Political Affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London from 1988-1996. 

Mr. Gaylard also served for 20 years in Australia�s Department of Foreign Affairs and Diplomatic Corps, where he was High Commissioner for Australia to the Solomon Islands from 1985-1988, and Deputy High Commissioner for Australia to Singapore from 1983-1985.  Other postings with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs took him to Mexico and Burma, and he was Head of the Indonesia Desk at headquarters. From 1968-1970 Mr. Gaylard served in the Australian Regular Army, which included service in Malaysia and Singapore. He was born in Nambour, Queensland, and received his degrees from the University of Queensland and the Australian National University.

FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization
Representative to Somalia and Kenya

Dr.  Daniel Gustafson

Daniel Gustafson heads the Nairobi Office of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which covers both Somalia and Kenya. He was educated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (B.A, M.Sc.) and University of Maryland (Ph.D.), both in the USA, and his work has focused on making the most of opportunities for institutional change, policy implementation, and the practical application of improved governance within agricultural programmes. 

He began working for FAO in July 1994 in Mozambique and moved to the Nairobi Office in January 1998. Prior to that he was a member of the extension faculty of the University of Maryland (1988-94).  He has served as the Director of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Programme of the International Development Management Centre, and before that for the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), in Brazil, from 1977-88.

UNESCO Regional Programme of Education for Emergencies, Communication and Culture of Peace (PEER) Representative

Mudiappasamy Devadoss

Mudiappasamy Devadoss coordinates and, since September 2002, serves also as the Head a.i., of the UNESCO Regional Programme of Education for Emergencies, Communication and Culture of Peace (PEER) which operates in Somalia, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes Region. He studied philosophy (BA) and English language and literature (MA) in India. He has a BA in Theology from the Gregorian University, Rome, Italy. His PhD (1980) in Educational Administration and Supervision is from Fordham University, New York, USA. He was the Rector of Beschi College, Dindigul, India, where he was also a lecturer for eleven years before he came in 1993 to work with UNESCO for the  rehabilitation of the education sector in Somalia.
 

UNESCO - UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
Regional Representative

 Mamady Lamine Conde

UNHCR  - UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Representative to Somalia

Simone Wolken

Simone Wolken has headed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Somalia operation since 2001.

UNICEF-UN Children's Fund

Representative

Jesper Morch,

Mr. Jesper Morch was appointed Representative for UNICEF Somalia in September 2002.  From August 1998 until his latest appointment, he was Representative for UNICEF South Africa, and was based in Pretoria.

Mr. Morch joined UNICEF in April 1982 as a Junior Professional Officer (JPO) sponsored by the Danish Government and held the post of Assistant Development Education Officer in Geneva, Switzerland.  In May 1985, he was appointed as Development Education Officer.  In January 1988, he became Programme Coordinator in Jakarta, Indonesia.  In October 1994, he became Senior Programme Officer in Dar-es-Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania until his transfer to Pretoria, Republic of South Africa in August 1998.

Mr. Morch is a national of Denmark.  He attended the Rungsted Statsskole in Rungsted, Denmark where he obtained a Certificate of Education in June 1971.  He studied Latin American History at the Institute of History at the University of Aarhus in Denmark where he obtained his Master of Arts degree in May 1979.  He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin American Language and Culture at the Institute of Roman Languages at the same university in January 1981.  He studied at the Langkaer Gynmasium in Tilst, Denmark where he obtained his Certificate in Education in August 1981.

Mr. Morch is married and he and his wife, Edith, have three young sons.

UNPOS - UN Political Office for Somalia
Head of UNPOS

Winston A. Tubman

Winston Tubman was appointed Head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and took up office in April 2002.

Mr. Tubman, a national of Liberia, has since February 1998 been the Senior Advisor to the Force Commander of the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM).  Prior to that he was assigned to the UN Peace Office in Zagreb, Croatia, and the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES). In 1993 he served as Executive Secretary of the Commission of Inquiry that investigated the ambush and killing of Pakistani peacekeepers in Mogadishu. He served as Principal Legal Officer in the Office of Legal Affairs from 1991-96 and from 1973-75, and was with the UN Environment Programme from 1975-77. 

He has occupied a number of senior positions in the Government of Liberia, including Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1979 to 1981.  In 1990 he was Chair of the Legal and Constitutional Committee of the group of Liberian political leaders that established Liberia's interim government and later served as its Foreign Minister and Minister of State.  He established in 1968 the Tubman Law Firm in Monrovia and served as its Managing Director and senior partner for the next 20 years. He is a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of Liberia, and has taught law at the University of Liberia from 1968-72, and at universities in the United States.  Mr. Tubman obtained his graduate degrees from the London School of Economics, Cambridge University and Harvard Law School.

WFP - World Food Programme
Representative to Somalia

Robert Hauser

WHO - World Health Programme
Representative to Somalia

Ibrahim Betelmal

FSAU - Food Security Assessment Unit
Head of FSAU

Buzz Sharp

Sharp

Buzz Sharp has been the Chief Technical Adviser (CTA) of the Food Security Assessment Unit Somalia since September 2000. The FSAU provides comprehensive and in-depth information and analysis on the food security situation and nutrition status of people living in Somalia. Mr.Sharp has overall responsibility for the management of the FSAU and regularly reports to donors, the SACB, UN agencies, NGO�s and local partners on the vulnerability status of rural Somali households. He also directs FSAU�s technical input  into both short term emergency food relief interventions and medium to long term food security planning and programming (by donors, implementing agencies, NGO�s and the Somali people) aimed at strengthening Somali coping capacity.

Mr. Sharp has over eighteen years experience working in food security, agribusiness and rural development in East Africa. During this time he has worked in complex emergency settings involving both pastoral and agriculturally based economies. Prior to joining FSAU, he managed the WFP food security unit in South Sudan. During this time, he institutionalized the Household Economy Approach (HEA), the methodology now used by FSAU which provides a logical framework for food security information collection and analysis in a complex emergency environment. Mr.Sharp graduated from Reading University (UK) in 1984 with a M.Sc. in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development.

UNCU - UN Coordination Unit
Head of UNCU

Calum McLean

Calum McLean became head of the UN Coordination Unit (UNCU) in April 2002, with more than 16 years of experience in humanitarian work in the region. He came to the job from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Agriculture, Business and Environment Office (ABEO) where he held the post of Drought Coordinator/Pastoralist Advisor since April 2001 . While there, he advised on the allocation of food assistance, coordination systems, pastoral development, and coherent drought responses including recovery strategies.

From 1998-2001 Mr. McLean headed ActionAid's Emergency Support Center for Africa (ESCA) which provides support in all aspects of humanitarian and peace building work, including  work on preventing conflict, building on community coping strategies and preparedness planning, acute emergency interventions such as food distribution, and post emergency work such as reconciliation and recovery.  From 1995-1999, he served as Head of the Emergency Response and Information Center at ActionAid's Emergency Unit.

Previously, Mr. McLean has worked as an independent relief and development consultant in the UK, and served a three-year term with The Woodland Trust from 1990-1993.  He worked in Ethiopia from 1988-1990, first as a Program Coordinator for Oxfam Ethiopia, then as Program Manager for ActionAid Ethiopia.  He also has four years experience in Sudan, where he served as a Nutritionist and later Field Officer for Oxfam Sudan from 1984-1988.  Mr. McLean has a BSc in Environmental Biology with Human Nutrition from Oxford Brookes University (UK).