Our Team in Jordan

Ms. Sheri Ritsema-Anderson was appointed by the UN Secretary General as the UN Resident Coordinator in Jordan on 22 January 2023.
Ms. Ritsema-Anderson brings more than 20 years of experience in international relations, humanitarian affairs, social protection, and public policy, including 10 years working in and on the Middle East. She has cross-cutting expertise in multi-lateral coordination, systems thinking, interagency relations, and strategic analysis.
Prior to her appointment as United Nations Resident Coordinator, she held various senior positions with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). She served most recently as Head of Office in Iraq and previously as Deputy Head of Office in the occupied Palestinian Territory, South Sudan and Indonesia. She also served in the Operations and Advocacy Division in New York, as OCHA’s principal advisor on the Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Before that, she worked with UNICEF, UNRWA and various international non-governmental organizations in the Gaza Strip, Indonesia, Chad, Kenya and Sierra Leone, advancing protection and emergency and recovery assistance for children, refugees and others affected by natural disasters and complex emergencies.
Sheri Ritsema-Anderson began her career working in social protection. As part of the New York City Mayor’s Office and the State of Florida governments, she was responsible for advancing social policy and programming in the areas of poverty alleviation, children and family services, and homelessness. She also worked with urban-focused, grassroots civil society organizations in the United States and Peru.
She holds a Master's degree in Public and Urban Policy from The New School Milano School of Policy, Management and Environment in New York.

Maria Stavropoulou has been the UNHCR Representative to Jordan since July 2024.
With a career dedicated to international human rights and refugee law spanning more than thirty years, Ms. Stavropoulou has held various positions with different UN agencies and the Greek authorities.
Her leadership roles include serving as UNHCR’s Deputy Representative in Syria, UNHCR’s Representative in Mauritania, and as Deputy Director of the UNHCR Liaison Bureau in New York, US. During the onset of the Syria crisis and at the peak of the refugee influx to Greece, Ms Stavropoulou held senior positions in Greek Ministries, as the Director of Asylum Service under the Ministry of Migration Policy and Director of First Reception Service under the Ministry of Public Order.
Ms Stavropoulou has also served with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Special Advisor on Prevention of Genocide.
Trained as a lawyer, Ms Stavropoulou holds two Master of Laws degrees from Harvard University, US, and University College London, UK, and an undergraduate degree in law from Athens Law School, Greece.
She is fluent in Greek, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Noha Abdul-Aziz Bawazir has extensive experience at UNESCO, having held several key positions. Before her current role as UNESCO Representative to Jordan and Head of Office, she served as UNESCO Representative to Palestine and Head of Office. Prior to that, she was Chief of the Arab States Unit within the Sector for Priority Africa and External Relations at UNESCO Headquarters, in charge of the Relations with the Member States of the Arab region and at the Bureau For Strategic Planning. Ms. Noha holds a Master's Degree in Political History from Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle and an MPhil in International Relations and Political Sciences from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Internationales (EHEI, Paris).

Mr. Nicolas Burnait took up his role in Amman in August 2022, after serving as UN Women Representative to Myanmar. He brings to the job over 25 years of work experience in international affairs, including in complex humanitarian and development settings.
Mr. Burniat first joined UN Women in 2011 as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary General and Executive Director, working in turn with Michelle Bachelet and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngucka before being appointed to the Fiji Multi-Country Office in 2014 where he served first as Deputy Representative and then as Representative a.i..
Prior to joining UN Women, Mr Burniat worked as Attaché Diplomatique for the Permanent Mission of Belgium to the United Nations (2009-2010) where he followed human rights and gender, co-chaired the European Union General Assembly Third Committee Working Group during the Belgian Presidency of the EU, and chaired the Commission on the Status of Women Working Group on Communications. In 2007 and 2008 he worked as Pennoyer Fellow/Senior Associate for the US based NGO Human Rights First. Mr Burniat started his career with the United Nations as a lawyer with the International Court of Justice, the main judicial organ of the United Nations, based in The Netherlands, where he served from 2001 to 2007 in different capacities including as legal officer and as Special Assistant to the President of the Court.
Mr. Burniat is a Belgian national and holds a Master’s Degree in Law and two Advanced Master Degrees in Private and Public International Law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles as well as an LLM from New York University.

Mr. Philippe Duamelle assumed his responsibilities as UNICEF Representative to Jordan in November 2022.
Prior to this, Philippe Duamelle served as UNICEF Representative to Yemen, Turkey, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Benin. He also worked as Executive Officer in the Office of the Executive Director at UNICEF Headquarters.

Joining UNICEF in 1995, Philippe Duamelle worked in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office in Kenya.
Before UNICEF, he served with the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs in Iraq and United Nations Development Programme in Turkey.

Philippe Duamelle is a French national. He holds a graduate degree in Management and Development from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce et de Développement, Lyon France; and a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA.

Alberto Correia Mendes has been working for WFP for over 25 years, both in country offices and at WFP’s headquarters. He worked in various operations in Southern Africa and Southeast Asia. He took up his duties as Representative and Country Director in Jordan in October 2020, after two years as Representative and Country Director in Tajikistan. Prior to this assignment, he was Representative and Country Director for Eswatini (former Swaziland), East Timor, and Zimbabwe (ad interim). He also served as Senior Adviser for Angola in the Regional Bureau for Southern, East, and Central Africa in Johannesburg and held several other positions in WFP’s Headquarters, Angola, and Mozambique. Alberto holds a university degree (BSc.) in mathematics and physics.

Ms. Mowafy is an Egyptian international development professional with 20+ years of leadership, management and advisory roles delivering high impact results to achieve social justice through innovative and evidence based interventions in the areas of employment and education. This includes a solid track record of high-level socio-economic policy advocacy, resource mobilization, partnership building and programme/project management. Over her career, she worked with the UN (ILO), development partners (USAID), the Government of Egypt (MIC) and private sector (P&G) as well as academia (AUC) while maintaining constant engagement with civil society. With the ILO, she started as the Senior Programme Officer for Sub-Regional Office for North Africa, then became Chief Technical Advisor for an ILO/Canada Youth Employment project in Egypt and left as the Regional Youth Employment Specialist for Africa. Prior to rejoining the ILO as Jordan Country Coordinator and Regional Senior Employment Specialist for Arab States, she was the Chief of Party of USAID Egyptian Pioneers (a USD 86 million workforce development grant); an Adjunct Faculty Member at the Economics Department; and a research fellow of the Access to Knowledge for Development (A2K4D) at the American University in Cairo. Mowafy has two degrees with highest honors from the American University in Cairo: a Masters in Public Administration with a specialization in International Organizations (on merit scholarship) and B.A. in Economics. She has completed all but dissertation for a PhD in Public Administration at Cairo University/Faculty of Economics and Political Science.

Mr Al-A’darbeh has more than 15 years of experience in the Rule of Law and Criminal Justice. He joined UNODC Jordan in April 2011 as a Project Manager and became, in May 2014, the UNODC Team Leader and Head of Office. Before that, he worked for UNDP in Iraq from 2008 to 2011 within the Governance Cluster. He also worked at the Arab Academy for Banking and Financial Sciences as a Senior Public Relations and Protocol Officer (2005-2008). Al-A’darbeh holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and Conflict Resolution and a Bachelor’s degree in Law. He is a member of the Jordan Bar Association since 2001.

Ms. Abuthiab is the National Programme Coordinator for UN-Habitat Programme. She has more than 20 years of experience in spatial planning and urban development in Jordan and the middle east. Before joining UN-Habitat in August 2018, she held several positions at governmental sector, non-profit organizations, and private sectors in Jordan. In early 2000s, Deema served at the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) for 6 years as an urban planner. From 2007- 2012, she worked at the Urban Workshop Center where she was engaged in developing strategic and urban development plans for different regions in Jordan. After that, she assumed the position of Urban Studies Director at Consolidated Consultants Engineering firm in Jordan and was responsible for managing several projects in the region.

Eng. Sulafa Mdanat has been UNIDO’s Representative to Jordan since April 2017. Ms. Mdanat brings over 15 years of experience in development and has previously worked as a Team Leader for the education reform program at Global Affairs Canada (2010-2017). In parallel, she managed other Canadian supported projects in the fields of sustainable economic growth and renewable energy sectors.

Before that, she worked with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) from 1999 to 2007, where she managed multiple German supported development projects in different sectors (vocational education, solid waste management and others) in Jordan and the region.

Ms. Mdanat speaks Arabic, English, German and French and holds a Masters degree in biomedical engineering from Dresden University of Technology in Germany and a post graduate degree in general management. She is married with two sons.

Mr. Himyar Abdulmoghni is an experienced professional with over 20 years of diverse management and leadership roles in humanitarian and development contexts. He worked with various organizations including government, private sector, NGOs, INGOs, and the United Nations.
Mr. Abdulmoghni holds an MBA from Open University-Malaysia and a diploma in Social Sciences from Costa Rica University and graduated with a B.Sc. in Pharmacy from Sana'a University in 1996.
Mr. Abdulmoghni worked in Yemen, Jordan, Zambia, Iraq, Equatorial Guinea and Syria. He held key positions with UNFPA, such as Assistant Representative, Programme Coordinator, Deputy Representative and Representative a.i where he provided program leadership, strategic guidance, and oversight. He is a strong advocate of human rights and the inclusion of the International Conference for Population and Development (ICPD) Agenda in national policies and strategies; and a strong believer in joint work and partnership.
Mr. Abdulmoghni's experience includes leading teams and programs, results based management, evidence-based advocacy, developing national capacity programmes, and resource mobilization.
During his time with UNFPA he led big scale programmes on reproductive health & gender; and population & development.

Ms. Benner has over 15 years of experience promoting development solutions for countries facing complex transition and reform, conflict, and forced displacement challenges. Ms. Benner, a United States national, joined the World Bank in 2009 as Project Coordinator for the 2011 World Development Report on Conflict, Security and Development. She has since held various positions, including Senior Operations Officer with the Fragility, Conflict and Violence Group where she served as Program Manager for the US$240 million State- and Peacebuilding Fund, Korean Trust Fund for Transitions, and United Nations-World Bank Partnership Trust Fund. Prior to joining the Bank, Ms. Benner worked with the Brookings Institution, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, and various non-governmental organizations. At Brookings, Ms. Benner managed a Project on transnational threats and reform of the multilateral system. At U.S. Department of State, she authored an interagency conflict assessment methodology and served as a Conflict Advisor in the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal. While with Seeds of Peace, she led dialogue programs for youth from conflict regions including the Middle East, Cyprus, and the Balkans. Ms. Benner holds a Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, Development Economics, and Comparative Political Analysis from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University; and a Bachelor’s Degree from Colorado College.

Dr Jamela Al-Raiby was appointed as WHO Representative for Jordan on 7 November 2021. Dr Al-Raiby is a paediatrician with 30 years’ experience in public health, health policy and management prior to her current assignment.
Dr Al-Raiby served as the Regional Advisor for Child and Adolescent Health from 2015 to 2021, and Medical Officer for Reproductive and Maternal Health from 2012 to 2015 at WHO’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.
She served as Deputy Minister of Public Health and Population of Yemen for the Population Sector from 2008 to 2012 and General Director of Women’s Health Affairs from 2004 to 2008 at the Ministry of Public Health and Population in Yemen.
Dr Al-Raiby holds a bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery, a master’s degree in paediatric endocrinology and a master’s degree in public administration. Early on in her career, she worked as a paediatric consultant from 1999 to 2004, and a family physician from 1992 to 1994 in primary health care.
She has actively contributed to the development of WHO technical guidelines and research and authored/co-authored a number of regional and global level technical publications. Dr Al-Raiby has had various functions throughout her career, including support to sexual, reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health, leading multi-stakeholder policy dialogue for equitable and quality health service strategies with a focus on universal health coverage.
She is an strong advocate for equity, women and youth engagement through building national capacities. Her professional aspiration is to promote global health and development of effective partnerships towards peace and sustainable development.

Mr Akram has over 24 years of experience in the UN system, governmental and non-governmental sectors in humanitarian and development affairs. Before joining UNOPS in 2014 as the Regional Advisor on the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks for Asia, the Middle East and Europe, and later as the Head of Programme for UNOPS Operational Hub in Amman, Mr Akram worked in the United Nations Development Operations Coordination Office in New York. He also acted as the Head of the Resident Coordinator Office for Iraq while officiating the function of the Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for Iraq. Before Iraq, he worked as Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for the United Nations Development Programme serving the Arab States Region in Cairo and the Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States in Bratislava. Prior to joining the UN system, Mr. Akram worked in the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in Pakistan and Save the Children UK in Pakistan as well as Central Asia.

Mr. Assaf took up his role in Amman in July 2020, after serving as FAO Representative in Algeria.

A national of Lebanon, Mr. Assaf holds a Bachelor Degree in Forestry, a Master’s Degree in Ecology/Natural Resources Management from the National School of Forestry Engineering, Salé, Morocco and a Master of Research in Forest Systems and Products from the University of Lleida, Spain. In 2008, he was Ph.D. candidate in Forestry Biogeography and Land Use Management from the Academy of Paris, Sorbonne University, France.

He joined FAO in 2010 as Forestry Officer at the Sub Regional Office for North Africa (SNE), Tunis, Tunisia. From 2011 to June 2020, he was also serving as FAO Representative in Algeria. Ahead of that he worked for EU-supported projects, agricultural research institutes and in teaching.

Ms. Noor Al-Hakim is the Country Coordinator for the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme in Jordan. She is Certified Project Management Professional (PMP)®, holding Masters’ degree in Global Business Administration and BA in Management Information system. Noor has 9 years of experience mainly in Programme Management and HR Administration/ Management within the UN system. She started her career in 2015 with UNRWA HQ in Amman at the HR department and continue serving the UN system by joining UNV Programme in 2018. Before she was assigned as a Country Coordinator for UNV Jordan in 2021, Noor was supporting UNV Programme at Regional Level, focusing on 9 countries including Jordan. Noor has initially joined the UN system as a volunteer back in 2014, she believes in volunteerism as a powerful mean to change our world for better.

In September 2022, Mr. Olaf Becker was appointed as Acting Director of UNRWA Affairs, Jordan. He is leading the UNRWA Jordan Field in providing humanitarian services, basic education, primary healthcare, relief and social services, infrastructure, microfinance, protection and emergency services for the most vulnerable refugees. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Becker was Deputy Director for Operations at the UNRWA Jordan Field Office.

Before joining UNRWA, he spent 12 years working in microfinance across Eastern and Southern Africa. Most recently, based in Zambia, he held the position of Chief Commercial Officer for the Africa Region, focusing primarily on digital strategy and crisis management.

From 2017 to 2021, Mr. Becker also served as a Director on the Board of FINCA Jordan. Prior to this, he was the Chief Operations Officer at FINCA Microfinance Bank Tanzania, leading the implementation of the institution’s transformation projects focused on leveraging digital solutions to increase financial inclusion. Between 2011 and 2015, he worked as Chief Operations Officer in Malawi driving rural outreach of financial services. Mr. Becker started his career in Client Relations Management and Process Improvement at ABN AMRO Bank and RBS in the Netherlands.

Mr. Becker holds a Master Degree in Social Policy & Planning for Developing Countries from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor Degree from the University of Exeter in Business and Accounting with European Studies.

Prior to this appointment, Randa was UNDP Resident Representative for Egypt (2019-2021) and UNDP Country Director in Egypt since January 2017. She also served as UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Algeria (2013-2016) and UNDP Country Director in Yemen (2010-2013). Prior to that, she was Special Advisor to the Directorate (2007-2010) and Programme Advisor (2005-2006) in the Regional Bureau for Arab States in New York, USA. In 2004-2005, she was Assistant Resident Representative in UNDP Yemen and Policy Specialist/Programme Management in UNDP Lebanon during 1995-2004. Randa holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Public Policy and Management from the University of London, a Master of Arts in Social and Behavioural Science and Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.

She speaks Arabic, English and French.

Randa took up her new assignment as UNDP Resident Representative in Jordan on 2 October 2021.

Before his current position, Mr Dimassi has held several senior positions in the United Nations that covered a wide range of operations from high-level management, administration and decision making, to corporate and partner relations, information and technology operations and programmatic management. He worked at UN New York Headquarters, as well as in The Hague, Beirut, Hamburg and Nairobi. Mr Dimassi holds a Bachelor degree in Information Technology from Ottawa University and his Masters in Management from Waterloo University in Canada.

Ms Tajma Kurt assumed her duties as IOM’s Chief of Mission for Jordan in August 2019. Before that, she served as Chief of Mission Kosovo for four years and as Chief of Mission Tajikistan for three years. During her 15 years with IOM, Ms Kurt also served in Afghanistan and Iraq. She was responsible for large portfolios overseeing return and reintegration; disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration; movement operations; counter-trafficking; immigration and border management; community stabilisation; social inclusion and reconciliation and preventing violent extremism. Before joining IOM, Ms Kurt worked with donors and civil society organisations for nine years in conflict and the postconflict environment as well as a journalist during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ms Kurst holds a Master’s degree in Post-War recovery from York University (UK).

Mr. Said is currently serving as the Resident Representative for Jordan, previously he worked as a Senior Economist at the IMF Strategy Policy and Review department, specializing on issue of sovereign debt and the external sector. Over ten years of Fund service Mr. Said worked on a number of countries in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia in program and surveillance contexts. Prior to joining the Fund Yahia worked at the World Bank, the London School of Economics and Ernst and Young.