Our Team in Jordan

Mr. Isaczai took up his role in Amman in January 2022, after serving as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the UN in New York with the rank of a cabinet member. Mr. Isaczai brings to the job over 25 years of work experience in the UN system and NGOs covering complex humanitarian, development, recovery, and peace-building issues in different parts of the world, including serving in Azerbaijan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Germany, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Yemen and Syria. Before joining the UN system, Mr. Isaczai held positions with the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan and Save the Children-US in Peshawar, Pakistan, and worked with the private sector in the United States.
Mr. Isaczai holds an M.A. in Public International Law from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, a BSc in Business Administration from Midland University, a Diploma in Human Development from Jones International University, and has completed coursework on negotiations and conflict resolution from Harvard University.
He is fluent in Pashto, Dari/Farsi, and English and has a working knowledge of Arabic and Urdu/Hindi, and familiarity with Turkish/Azerbaijani languages.

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. 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.

Alberto Correia Mendes has been working for WFP for over 25 years both in country offices and 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.

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.

Carlos Geha brings over fifteen years of humanitarian leadership experience in diverse natural and complex emergencies to the Jordan response as the incoming Head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Jordan. Mr. Geha has worked for over a decade with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and four years with the ICRC in diverse contexts including Senegal, the Rohingya Crisis, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Chad, Yemen, Ivory Coast, Yemen, Tunisia, Lebanon and Syria. Immediately prior to his arrival in Amman in 2020 Mr. Geha was the Senior Emergency Coordinator for the Inter-Sector Coordination Group in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh for the World Food Program. Mr. Geha also previously opened OCHA office in Amman, Jordan (for Jordan and Syria) then leading coordination and implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2165 for humanitarian activities from Jordan to Southern Syria 2013-2016. He started his career in the private sector, after completing his PhD in Computer Enhanced Network Design and Statistical Simulation from the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK.

Christian has more than 25 years of experience in program management, strategic leadership, and policy advice. His professional expertise and leadership path includes a broad range of development and management areas, including governance and decentralization, human rights, community driven development, social cohesion and peacebuilding, and civil society and media support. For the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), he was heading governance and local development programs in countries in transition in Asia and Eastern Europe and was also serving at the UN Volunteers headquarter in Germany. He holds a PhD in law and a postgraduate diploma in international relations. With his team in the Arab region, he is promoting and enabling volunteerism within the UN system as a means to implement the 2030 agenda.

Ms. Abuthiab is the National Programme Coordinator for UN-Habitat Programme. She has more than 15 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.

Dominik took up his role in Amman in February 2020, after serving as the UNHCR Representative to Germany. In his 30 years with the UN, he has worked in major humanitarian emergencies and refugee operations, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Zambia, Kenya and India. He also served in senior management positions at UNHCR HQ in Geneva and the UN HQ in New York. In 2005, Dominik was seconded to the Department for Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and was deployed to the office of the Secretary-General, tasked with the opening of the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), and the setting-up of the Peace¬building Fund (PBF).
Trained as Development Economist, Dominik holds an MA in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia in the UK and an undergraduate degree in public administration from the University of Konstanz in Germany.

Ms. Enshrah Ahmed is Jordan UNFPA Head of Office. She holds M.Sc. on Gender and Development from London School of Economics. She has written both published and unpublished papers / reports on various gender issues including a recent paper titled “Female Genital Mutilation and Population Movements in and outside the Arab Region March 2018, in partnership with Coventry University in the UK and Ahfad University in Sudan”.

Enshrah held the position of Gender Unit Chief At two UN missions; Sierra Leone and Lebanon. Furthermore, she was the Deputy Regional Director for UNIFEM (currently UNWomen) Arab States Regional office in Amman. Besides, she held various posts in the UK including Amnesty at International, the International Secretariat in London.

Ms. Enshrah Ahmed is a British citizen who is originally from Sudan and lives with her husband and daughter.

Ms. Khan is the Country Coordinator for the ILO Office in Amman and the Senior Specialist, Gender Equality and Non Discrimination for the Regional Office for Arab States. She has over twenty years’ experience working with the government of Pakistan, the ILO, UNDP and UN Women on skills development, livelihoods, governance, women’s economic empowerment and gender equality. She has worked in Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan and Hong Kong. Her publications include studies on the gender pay gap in the garments sector in Pakistan, rural women’s inheritance rights in Muslim communities in Asia and Africa, the gender dimensions of skills development systems in Pakistan, and the impact of politically motivated overseas development aid on developing countries’ gender equality goals. Frida has an M.Sc. in Development Administration and Planning from University College London, and an M.A. in English Literature from the University of the Punjab, Pakistan. She is a Fellow of the international network, Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD), an Australian Executive Award holder, and was awarded an Australian Award for Excellence for her work on TVET reform in Pakistan.

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. Ismail has been serving as Resident Representative based in Amman since 2018, previously he covered Iraq and Yemen, and he has been covering Jordan since September 2020. Prior to this, Mr. Ismail worked in the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department (SPR) and the African department of the IMF. In SPR, he co-authored various policy papers including on Fund lending and was SPR economist on Turkey and Albania, including covering the successful completion of the latter’s 2014 EFF program. He also served as team lead on the vulnerability exercise for low-income countries and as deputy on the IMF Risk group. In the African Department, he helped negotiate Liberia’s first post-HPIC ECF and was fiscal desk economist on Zambia. Prior to joining staff, Kareem was Advisor to the Executive Director at the IMF for the Middle East (2009-11). He holds a PhD in economics from the Johns Hopkins University.

A national of Lebanon, Ms El Helou is the Director of UNIC in Beirut since August 2018, covering Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Kuwait, and the Representative of the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC) in Lebanon. She has more than 20 years of experience in public information, communications and international relations, acquired at the United Nations and externally, including 10 years at UNIC Beirut.
From 2000 to 2007, she provided support to strategic communications projects and senior communications officials in the Office of the Executive Secretary of ESCWA.
Ms El Helou holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture engineering from the American University of Beirut.

With a wealth of over 27 years of experience, 18 of which in the humanitarian and development field at senior level across a number of countries in the MENA region, Marta Lorenzo is leading UNRWA Jordan Field with a workforce of 6010. Prior to joining UNRWA, Marta was Oxfam’s MENA regional director managing 11 country offices. She was also the head of the Spanish agency for international development cooperation (AECID) in Jerusalem and has worked as a senior consultant for UN women in Palestine, Chief operating officer for Integrity Work, and chief of mission of the international organization of Migration (IOM) in Tunisia. Marta started her career monitoring the delivery of food aid distribution among displaced refugee populations in Croatia and later joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a programme officer for the programme of assistance of Palestinian people in Jerusalem.
Marta has a Master’s Degree in Migration, a Postgraduate Degree in Development Cooperation and a BSc in Economics. As well as a Degree in International Marketing and Trade. She is a Spanish national, fluent in Spanish and English and has a good command of French, Arabic and German.

Min Jeong Kim has more than 20 years of experience in the field of educational development, media and communication. Prior to her current position in Jordan, she was Head of the UNESCO Office in Myanmar. Before that, she was based in New York as Head of the UN Secretary-General’s Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) Secretariat; and Policy Advisor to the One UN Secretariat on Post 2015 Development Planning. She had previously worked in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as Chief of UNESCO Education Section for the Indian Ocean countries; and in Beirut, Lebanon, as the UNESCO Regional Programme Coordinator for Education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. She has also worked for a number of years in the Executive Office of the Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO HQ in Paris on donor coordination and strategic planning. Before joining the UN system, she was a journalist in her home country, Republic of Korea. Ms Kim holds an Executive Masters in International Relations and Management from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and a Masters in Political Science from Yonsei University, Republic of Korea.

Mr Akram has over 20 years of experience in the UN system, governmental and non-governmental sectors in humanitarian and development affairs. Before joining UNOPS in 2015 as the Regional Advisor on the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks for Asia, the Middle East and Europe, Mr Akram worked in the United Nations Development Operations Coordination Office in New York. Before that, he was the acting Head of the Resident Coordinator Office for Iraq while officiating the function of the Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for Iraq. Before that, he worked as Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for United Nations Development Programme serving the Arab States Region and the Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States.

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.

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 Madnat has 15 years of experience in the development field in Jordan. Before her assignment at UNIDO, she was from 2010-2017 an Education Program Team Leader at Global Affairs Canada (GAC). 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 both Jordan and the region. Sulafa has a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Germany and a post-graduate degree in Management.