News Break
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed senior UN official Siddharth Chatterjee as the new United Nations Resident Coordinator in China. This is a according to a statement published in the the United Nation’s website.
Reacting to his appointment on Twitter, Mr. Chatterjee who is currently the Resident Coordinator to Kenya said “I am deeply honored @antonioguterres has selected me as his Resident Coordinator to China & the Government of China’s acceptance. I look forward to working with the UN Country team to accelerate the SDGs & advancing South-South Cooperation in partnership with China.”
Mr. Chatterjee who is originally from India took over from Ms. Sahle-WorkZewde who left the UN to become the 5th President of Ethiopia. Resident Coordinators are the UN Secretary-General’s representatives for development at the country level, currently leading UN teams to support countries to recover better from the COVID-19 pandemic through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
According to the Secretary General’s spokesman Mr. Stephane Dujarric, Mr. Guterres appointed Mr. Chatterjee as the Resident Coordinator in China, with the host government’s approval. in this regard, following the confirmation from China, Sid will take up his post in the middle of January of next year.
Mr. Chatterjee has more than 25 years of experience in international cooperation, sustainable development, humanitarian coordination and peace and security, which he has acquired at the United Nations and externally, the world organization said in a statement.
Before his appointment as the UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya, Mr Chatterjee held other leadership positions across the organisation, including Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Kenya, Regional Director for the Middle East and Europe for the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Denmark and Chief of Staff in the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
He has also worked with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Indonesia, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, and in United Nations peacekeeping operations with the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH).
Mr. Chatterjee also served in the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent as the Chief Diplomat and Head of Resource Mobilization in Switzerland. Before joining the United Nations in 1997, he was a commissioned officer in India’s Army.
A TEDx speaker, he is a regular opinion contributor on humanitarian and development issues for a range of local, regional and international media outlets and journals, the UN statement added. Chatterjee holds a master’s degree in public policy from Princeton University in the United States, and a bachelor’s degree from the National Defence Academy in India.
