Our Team in Yemen

Mr. Julien Harneis has more than 30 years of experience in development coordination, humanitarian assistance and management.
Prior to his current role as the RC-HC for Yemen, he served as United Nations Resident Coordinator in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Before that, he was Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and earlier he served as Head of Office for the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Nigeria. Julien has served at the UNICEF Representative in Yemen and in Guinea, as well as humanitarian positions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon and Indonesia. Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Harneis worked in the private sector.
Mr. Julien Harneis has a Master of Studies in International Relations from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and a Master of Business Administration from the Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) in France.

Serving since 2019 as Ambassador of the European Union to Yemen, Mr. Grundberg brings over 20 years of experience in international affairs, including over 15 years working in conflict resolution, negotiation, and mediation, with focus on the Middle East. He previously headed the Gulf Division at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Stockholm during the time that Sweden hosted the United Nations-facilitated negotiations that culminated in the Stockholm Agreement in 2018.
Mr. Grundberg is a career diplomat, having served with both Swedish and European Union missions abroad, with postings in Cairo and Jerusalem, as well as Brussels, where he chaired the Middle East/Gulf Working Group of the European Council during the 2009 Swedish presidency of the European Union.
He holds a Master of Science in business and economics from the Stockholm School of Economics.

Abdusattor Esoev is the Chief of Mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Yemen as of October 2024. Prior to this, he served as IOM Chief of Mission in Bangladesh, overseeing the largest IOM mission in the Asia Pacific region, with significant humanitarian operations supporting over one million Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. In his role as Co-Chair of the Strategic Executive Group (SEG), alongside the UNHCR Representative and the UN Resident Coordinator, Abdusattor co-led the coordination of the Rohingya response, contributing to the development and negotiation of the annual Joint Humanitarian Response Plan. He also played a key role in advocating for the inclusion of climate migration in national policies, which helped shape Bangladesh’s climate migration strategy at COP27. As IOM’s representative in Bangladesh, Abdusattor championed ethical recruitment practices and improved migration governance, significantly contributing to the country’s socioeconomic development.
Before his tenure in Bangladesh, Abdusattor was the IOM Chief of Mission in the Russian Federation from 2018 to 2022. There, he fostered strategic partnerships and led efforts to bring the Russian Federation into IOM as a Member State after nearly 30 years of holding Observer status.
Earlier, Abdusattor served as IOM’s Deputy Chief of Mission in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from 2015 to 2018, where he played a vital role in scaling up IOM operations during the 2017 Rohingya refugee crisis in Cox’s Bazar.
With nearly 24 years of experience in emergency response, post-crisis recovery, and development, Abdusattor has also held senior roles with IOM in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Sudan.
Abdusattor holds an MBA from the University of Liverpool (UK) and an MPhil in Public Policy and Administration from Walden University (USA), along with degrees in Economics and Linguistics. In addition to his native Tajik and English, Abdusattor speaks Russian, Dari/Farsi, and basic Arabic.

Mr. Ali Dehaq is the ILO’s National Program Coordinator for Yemen. He has more than 20 years of development experience; vast field experience running operations in conflict and/or disaster-affected context.

Cristina Albertin has been working for more than 30 years with the United Nations in different capacities across the world.
With her background in agronomy and environmental planning, she worked for several years with the World Food Programme (WFP) in rural and agricultural development in Bolivia before she joined in 1994 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), then United Nations Drug Control Programme in Peru where her work focused on sustainable alternative development options for small coca growers, men and women.
After a stint of almost 10 years at the UNODC Headquarters in Vienna at the Regional Section for Latin America and the Caribbean, she took up in 2007 the post as UNODC Representative in Bolivia (2007-2009), followed by the assignment as UNODC Regional Representative for South Asia based in India covering 6 South Asian countries (2009-2016), the post of the UNODC Representative in Nigeria (2016-2017) and since 2017 the post of the UNODC Regional Representative for the Middle East and North Africa covering 13 MENA countries
Cristina Albertin believes in, advocates for and promotes rule-of -law and human rights based, gender-responsive and inclusive approaches when developing and implementing policies, programmes and criminal justice responses in line with the United Nations Conventions and instruments on drug control, transnational organized crimes, including human trafficking and smuggling of migrants, corruption and terrorism paying special attention to the empowerment of youth, women, victims of crimes and violence and marginalized groups.

In 2014, Dina established the UNWomen presence in Yemen, leading UN Women’s engagement in Women Peace and Security and Humanitarian action. Dina holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration and International Management and a Bachelor's degree in Economics. She has served in several representation and senior positions with UNWomen as well as UNFPA and UNESCO.

Dr Syed Jaffar Hussain was assigned WHO Country Representative and Head of Mission in Yemen on 1 September 2025.

From 1 April 2021 until his move to Yemen, Dr Hussain served as Head of Mission and Country Representative in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

He served as Chef de Cabinet at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean from July 2019 to March 2021, as WHO Representative and Head of Mission in Libya (September 2015–July 2019) and Head of Mission in Tunisia (May 2016–Feb 2018), during which time he spent 6 months as Acting Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator.

Before joining the Libya office, Dr Hussain worked as WHO Representative in Iraq (2010–2015), a posting that for some time included Syria, and as Regional Adviser, Health Promotion/Violence, Injuries and Disabilities, at the Regional Office.

Dr Hussain holds a master’s degree in Hospital and Health Services Management from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, a medicine degree from University of Peshawar, Pakistan, and an honorary PhD from Belford University, US.

Before joining the Regional Office, Dr Hussain was Project Officer Child Health, UNICEF, Pakistan, WHO Technical Officer Child Health, Pakistan, and Health Coordinator UNHCR, Pakistan/Afghanistan.

Government assignments include Assistant Director of the EPI in Pakistan, Assistant District Health Officer, Deputy Medical Superintendent Psychiatric Hospital, and National Programme Manager Lady Health Programme for Primary Health Care and Family Planning.

Dr Hussain has worked extensively in emergency settings, with a particular focus on post-emergency health system strengthening, south-to-south cooperation and multilateralism and health issues faced by refugees and migrants in the Region and beyond.

Dr Hussain served as Regional Ombudsperson 2006–2010 and 2019–2021 and is a member of Global Board of Appeal (GBA). He has headed UN leadership initiatives with the UN Staff College, World Bank and WHO, and authored many publications in international journals.

Gazi Shbaikat is the IMF Resident Representative for Iraq and Yemen since January 2021. Previously, Mr. Shbaikat worked as Economist and Senior Economist in several countries in the Middle East and Central Asia Department in the IMF since 2010. Between 2006-2009, Shbaikat worked in the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Minister of Labor, Secretary General for the Ministry of Labor, and as Head of the Department of Statistics. He started his career in the Central Bank of Jordan. Mr. Shbaikat holds a master’s and Ph.D. in Economic from the US. His research interests at the Fund include fiscal and monetary policies as well as labor market policies.

Mr. Gadain, holds a B.Sc. in Civil and Hydraulic Engineering from the Sudan University of Science and Technology in Khartoum, Sudan. He also earned an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

He began his career in 1990 as a Civil Engineer. In 1991, he joined the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources, Sudan, as a Research Irrigation Engineer. From 1994 to 1998, he worked with the Water Resource Engineering Programme (WREP) at the University of Dar es Salaam as a Research Assistant, later serving as a Researcher from 1998 to 2001. Between 2001 and 2006, he worked as a Water Resources Specialist focusing on agrometeorological hazards and their impacts on food security in the Greater Horn of Africa under the United States Geological Survey’s Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, supporting the USAID FEWS NET project in Nairobi, Kenya.

Mr. Gadain joined FAO in 2006 as Water Coordinator for the Somalia Water and Land Information Management (SWALIM) project, based in Nairobi. From 2013 to May 2016, he served as Chief Technical Advisor for the project. On 21 May 2016, he was appointed by the FAO Director-General as the FAO Representative in Egypt. He is currently serving as FAO Representative in Yemen since July 2019.

Ms Inas Hamad was appointed UNV Regional Portfolio Specialist for Arab States in September 2020. She is based in Amman Regional Office. Before taking this regional position, Ms Hamad served as the UNV Country Coordinator for Egypt. Through her practical knowledge attained during 20 years of experience with the international world of nonprofits, including the World Health Organization, the World Bank, USAID, and Plan International, Ms Hamad has gained exposure in diverse capacities to several development fields. She has been involved in strategic planning, programme management, resource mobilization, and international cooperation. Ms Hamad holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the American University in Cairo and Columbia University in New York City, with focused studies on UN Management. She is a certified trainer in gender and development from the Royal Tropical Institute in the Netherlands.

Ms. Karen Perrin assumed the position of Head of Office for OCHA Yemen in August 2025. She brings over 25 years of experience in humanitarian affairs, with a strong focus on conflict and post-conflict settings across Africa, the Middle East, and beyond.
Prior to joining Yemen Country Office, Karen served as Head of Office for OCHA Cameroon (2021–2024), where she oversaw strategic, programmatic, and operational leadership of the humanitarian response. She was previously Acting Head of Office/Deputy Head of Office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2019–2021) and the Central African Republic (2017–2019), two of OCHA’s largest operations. From 2013 to 2017, she served at OCHA Headquarters in New York as Humanitarian Access Adviser, where she provided global and field guidance on humanitarian access and negotiations. Earlier in her career, she headed OCHA’s Sub-Office in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and worked with the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) as a Team leader/Protection of Civilians Officer in El Fasher and Khartoum.
Before joining the United Nations, Karen spent more than a decade with Handicap International (now Humanity & Inclusion), including as Programme Director in Somaliland/Somalia, Iraq, India, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she led emergency and recovery programmes in volatile environments.
Karen holds three Master’s degrees: in Political Science/International Relations from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), in Development Economics from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, and in Project Evaluation from the University of Rennes. She is fluent in French and English.

Mari Yamashita was appointed by the Secretary-General as Deputy Head of Mission for the United Nations Mission to support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA), in May 2024. In her position she serves also as Deputy Chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC).

Ms. Yamashita brings to the position extensive experience in preventive diplomacy, peacebuilding and political affairs developed over 30 years with the United Nations both at Headquarters and globally. Since December 2020, she has been the Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office in Belgrade.

Among various senior-level positions, she served as the Deputy Director of the Asia Pacific Division of the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, as Deputy Head and Director of the Peacebuilding Support Office, Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Tokyo and as External Relations Adviser in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General. Ms Yamashita also held leadership positions in the field, including assignments with the United Nations Mission in Nepal, United Nations Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe-United Nations Joint Operation in Armenia.

Ms Yamashita holds a Bachelor of Law degree from Sophia University (Jochi Daigaku) in Japan and a Master of Arts degree in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University in the United States. She speaks English, Finnish, French, German and Japanese.

Mr. Marin Din Kajdomcaj assumed the duties, of the UNHCR Representative in Yemen in February 2024. He arrived to Yemen from Poland where, as the Representative a.i. in Poland, he established and was running one of the most complex refugee operations in Europe.
During his 27 years-long experience with UNHCR/ UN, he has been tasked to head Operations, assuming high-level leadership and management positions in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sudan, Jordan, Georgia, and Sri Lanka, to name a few. Operations focused on protection and solutions for refugees and asylum seekers in Bangladesh and Jordan, to those mainly focusing on refugee return and IDP solutions, in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan to leading the combined, solution-oriented, refugee and IDP programs like the one in Pakistan.
Mr. Kajdomcaj is an Economist by trade, trained in the former Yugoslavia, where, prior to starting his work with the UN, he worked with the Government Department of International Trade and Politics for several years.
His initiation in the humanitarian segment of work was, with Medicines Sans Frontières where he worked before joining UNHCR.

Mr. Francesco Galtieri joined as the UNFPA Representative in Yemen on 17 November 2025. Mr. Galtieri brings to the role over two decades of experience in international relations and multilateral negotiations, working on both development programming and humanitarian preparedness and response.

Mr. Galtieri has held leadership positions in Africa, the Arab States, Europe and the United Nations Headquarters in New York where he led programmes on civic engagement, youth mobilization, local governance, conflict prevention and community peace-building initiatives.

His career includes serving most recently as UNFPA’s Representative in Guinea; Head of UN Resident Coordinators Office in Burkina Faso and Syria; Regional Policy Advisor at UN DGO/DOCO in New York for Africa, Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent State, supporting the implementation of the Delivering as One pilot initiative on UN reform. He started his UN professional journey as a United Nations Volunteer.

Mr. Galtieri is a lecturer in international affairs and has co-authored three books on international relations and diplomacy. He has also led civic initiatives in his home country Italy, as co-founder and National Coordinator of Movimenta.

Mr. Galtieri, holds a Ph.D. in African Studies from the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, a Master’s Degree in International and Diplomatic Affairs from the University of Trieste. He is a University of Harvard Kennedy School fellow and graduate in Public Administration.

He is fluent in English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Mr. Muslim Qazimi, is Head of UN-Habitat ad interim since September 2023. Previously he was working as Deputy Head of UN-Habitat in Iraq. He joined UN-Habitat in 2018, serving as Chair of the Housing, Land and Property Sub-cluster under humanitarian response and also Programme Manager managing various projects. He holds a postgraduate/Master’s degree in Public Administration and Political Sciences.

Peter Hawkins assumed the position of UNICEF Representative to Yemen in November 2022. Before that, he was UNICEF’s Representative in Nigeria (May 2019 to Oct 2022) and Iraq (from Sept 2015 to April 2019) where he created a programme with a clear focus on delivering a prioritized set of results for women and children, responding to large complex emergencies, and developing a long-term evidence-based programmes.

Prior to working with UNICEF, Peter Hawkins worked with the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) as: Head of Profession for Programme Management (UK); Team Leader for Human Development in Ethiopia; and Group Head for Sub-national Governance, Conflict Reduction and Democracy, Accountability and Voice in Pakistan. Peter also worked as Deputy Head for Provincial Reconstruction Team (Helmand, Afghanistan) and Team Leader for Human Development in Nigeria.

From 1985 to 2004, Peter worked with Save the Children UK where he last held the position of Regional Director for East and Central Africa (London HQ). His other positions included Regional Director for South Asia (London HQ), Emergency Coordinator (London HQ), Country Director (Angola), Deputy Country Director (Sri Lanka), and Senior Programme Coordinator (Ethiopia).

Peter Hawkins holds an advanced degree in Law (LL.M.) from the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS); and a Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) in African Language (Amharic) and Law, from SOAS, University of London.

Ms. Rehana Zawar assumed her responsibilities as UNOPS Country Manager for Yemen on 01 Jan 2024.
Ms. Zawar brings over 20 years of solid experience in Programme Management and Support, Governance as well as Strategic Development. Previously, Ms. Zawar served as Country Director of NRC, IRC and recently was responsible for the MENA Region including Jordan, Syria and Lebanon with CARITAS Switzerland. She has worked mostly in conflict and post-conflict countries like Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syria Arab Republic, Lebanon, Philippines as well as Pakistan.
Ms. Zawar holds a Masters Degree in Social Sciences and has recently completed her Nexus programming certification with Nexus Academy.

Mr. Salah Khaled is appointed as the Director of UNESCO Doha Office for Gulf States and Yemen, and UNESCO Representative to Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, as of 1 May 2022. Mr Khaled’s career with the United Na􀆟ons began in 1993, with the Operational Unit for Development Assistance (OUDA), a UNDP and Ministry of Foreign Affairs programme in Egypt, and subsequently at the UNICEF Office in Cairo from 1995 to 2001.
He joined UNESCO in 2001 taking up several key positions in the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa, including some post-conflict and post-disaster
countries. From 2001 to 2003, he was Chief of the Iraq Liaison and Procurement Unit based in Amman (Jordan) facilita􀆟ng the Organiza􀆟on’s opera􀆟ons in Iraq under the
Oil for Food Programme. From 2003 to 2011, as Liaison and Administrative Officer in the UNESCO Iraq Office (Amman) where he contributed to the establishment of the extrabudgetary funded porfolio for Iraq and also participated in several UN System-wide joint programming for the restructuring of the education system, protection of cultural heritage, peace building and conflicts resolution. In 2010, Mr Khaled provided backstopping in the Portau-Prince Office in the aftermath of the devastating Earthquake, coordinating the response of the Organization in relief programmes. In 2011, he served as Officer-in-Charge for the UNESCO Office in Islamabad (Pakistan),
and then from 2011 to 2012 he served first as Officer-in-Charge at the UNESCO Office in Juba and then in 2013 as Head of Office and UNESCO Representative to South Sudan.
Mr Khaled has also served in North Africa region from 2016 to 2018 as Regional Director a.i. of the UNESCO Office in Rabat and UNESCO representative to Morocco,
Mauritania, Algeria and Tunisia. Before joining the UNESCO Doha Office for the Gulf States and Yemen, Mr Khaled latest post was Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Central Africa based in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and UNESCO Representative to Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and SaoTome and Principe.
A graduate of the American University in Cairo with a BA in Political Sciences and a MBA in Human Development from the Arab Academy in Alexandria, he speaks fluently
English, French, Spanish in addition to his maternal Arabic. Mr Khaled is married and has a son and a daughter.

Ms. Zena Ali Ahmad has been appointed as UNDP Resident Representative for Yemen. Prior to this appointment, Zena was UNDP Resident Representative for Iraq (2019-2022) and the Regional Director for the Regional Office for Arab States in UN-Habitat at Egypt since 2017. She also served as UNDP Deputy Regional Hub Manager for Arab States (2016-2017), UNDP Country Director in Jordan (2012-2017), UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Syria (2008-2012), UNDP Policy Advisor in Arab States (2005-2007), and UNDP Assistant Resident Representative in Lebanon (1996-2004). Zena holds a Post Graduate/ Master’s degree in the Management of Social Change from the University of London in the UK. She also holds a Master’s degree in Rural Development and a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from the American University of Beirut.
She speaks English, French and Arabic.