Leadership
In August 2000, Karen AbuZayd became an Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, appointed to the post of Deputy Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. On 1 April 2005, she became the Acting Commissioner-General and the UN Secretary General appointed her to the post of Commissioner-General on 28 June 2005.
From her base in Gaza, she helps to oversee the education, health, social services and micro-enterprise programs for 4.1 million Palestinian refugees. Since September 2000, her work has concentrated on providing emergency assistance to, and generating employment for, the victims of the current crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory. With Headquarters in Gaza and Amman, UNRWA provides education, health, and relief and social services to Palestine refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. With some 25,000 employees, mainly locally recruited teachers and health workers, UNRWA is the largest United Nations Agency in terms of staff. TheAgency has a regular cash budget of $339 million for 2005.
Before joining UNRWA, Karen worked for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for 19 years. She began her humanitarian career in Sudan in 1981, dealing with Ugandan, Chadian and Ethiopian refugees fleeing from war and famine in their own countries. From Sudan she moved to Namibia in 1989to help coordinate the return of apartheid era refugees, a successfulrepatriation operation which led to elections and independence.A year later the Liberian civil war erupted and Karen movedto Sierra Leone to head the UNHCR office in Freetown, initiatinga new emergency response, that of settling 100,000 Liberiansin 600 villages along the Liberian/Sierra Leone border.
From 1991-93 in UNHCR's Geneva Headquarters, Karen directedthe South African repatriation operation and the Kenya Somalicross-border operation. She left Geneva to go to Sarajevo asChief of Mission for two years during the Bosnian war. Fourmillion displaced and war-affected people were kept alive byUNHCR's airlift and convoy activities, while thousands morewere protected from ethnic cleansing by a UNHCR presence. Karen'slast four years in UNHCR were spent as Chef de Cabinet to HighCommissioner Sadako Ogata and as Regional Representative forthe United States and Caribbean, where she focused on funding,public information and the legal issues of asylum-seekers. Beforejoining UNHCR, Karen lectured in Political Science and IslamicStudies at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and at JubaUniversity in southern Sudan. She earned her B.Sc. at DePauwUniversity in Indiana and her M.A. in Islamic Studies at McGillUniversity in Canada. She is married to a Sudanese professorand has two children.
With Headquarters in Gaza and Amman, UNRWA provides education,health, and relief and social services to Palestine refugeesliving in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the WestBank and the Gaza Strip. With some 25,000 employees, mainlylocally recruited teachers and health workers, UNRWA is thelargest United Nations Agency in terms of staff. The Agencyhas a regular cash budget of $339 million for 2005.
Deputy Commissioner-General for UNRWA
Gaza – Filippo Grandi, one of the United Nations’ (UN) most seasoned experts on refugee affairs, has assumed the post of Deputy Commissioner-General for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Mr. Grandi was appointed to the post on September 25 by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Commenting on his appointment, Karen AbuZayd, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General said: “Filippo Grandi brings a wide range of experience to his new position as Deputy Commissioner-General. His superb managerial and operational skills make him a valuable addition to UNRWA, as we and the Palestine refugees face the challenges ahead together.”
An Italian national, Mr. Grandi’s extensive experience in refugee and political affairs includes posts in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Since May 2004, Mr. Grandi served as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General responsible for political affairs at the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), where he was responsible for the electoral process, disarmament, demobilization and integration, as well as the verification of the exercise of political rights related to elections and human rights.
Prior to that, also in Afghanistan, Mr. Grandi was Chief of Mission of the United High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a position he held for three years. From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Grandi worked in the Executive Office of the UNHCR in Geneva, as Specia l Assistant and then Chief of Staff.
After joining UNHCR in 1988, Mr. Grandi served in refugee programs in Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and Iraq. Following the first Gulf War, he led emergency operations in Kenya, Benin, Ghana, Liberia, the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa, Yemen and Afghanistan, among others.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Grandi was Field Coordinator for UN humanitarian activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo during its civil war. Between 1984 and 1987 he worked with nongovernmental organizations carrying out refugee programs in Thailand and Italy. Mr. Grandi graduated from the State Universities of Venice and Milan with a degree in modern history, and from the Georgian University in Rome with a BA in philosophy.
