Our Team in Namibia

Ms. Hopolang Phororo

Hopolang Phororo

RCO
UN Resident Coordinator
Prior to her appointment as United Nations Resident Coordinator, Ms. Phororo served as Director in the Country Office for Zimbabwe and Namibia for more than seven years with the International Labour Organization (ILO). She was the ILO Deputy Director in the Country Office for Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda; and in the Regional Office for Africa, as the Youth Employment Specialist and Decent Work Focal Point Officer.

Before joining the UN system in 2003, she worked in Namibia as a Researcher at the Namibia Economic Policy Research Unit. In Lesotho, as National Project Officer at UN Development Programme and prior to that, as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Southern African Studies and as Marketing Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture.

Hopolang Phororo has written and published several working papers and selected articles and chapters in books on HIV/AIDS, youth employment and agricultural marketing topics, including an inspirational book titled “Joy Comes in the Morning”. She is an advocate for gender-based violence and is passionate about leadership and empowering women and youth.

She obtained her master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Duquesne University. She holds an honor’s degree in Psychology from the University of South Africa.

Abigail Noko

OHCHR
OHCHR Representative
 
 
 

Aleta Miller

UN Women
UN Women Representative
 
 
 
Ms. Alka Bhatia

Alka Bhatia

UNDP
UNDP Representative
Ms. Alka Bhatia is a national of India and has 30 years’ experience in poverty alleviation, trade and sustainable development. She has vast experience in providing strategic policy advise on sustainable development to Governments and UN Country Teams.

Clara Makenya

UNEP
UNEP Representative
 
 
 
David Chipanta

David Chipanta

UNAIDS
UNAIDS Country Director
 
Mr. David Chipanta is an expert in global health, HIV, social protection, and health equity. He has worked on strategic management, economic analysis, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, resource mobilization, social movement building, disability, and senior representation with multilateral agencies and government. David has served as Senior Advisor Social Protection with the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva, Switzerland, and as UNAIDS Country Director for Liberia in Monrovia, Liberia. He also worked with Abt Associates in Bethesda, Maryland, USA as Senior Analyst HIV and Health Systems, with the Catholic Relief Services as AIDS Relief-Co-ordinator for Kenya and Team Leader, Care and support in Nigeria. David co-founded the Network of People living with HIV in Africa (NAP+) and the Network of Zambian People Living with HIV (NZP+). David has a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biomedicine, Global Health Track from the University of Geneva, a master’s in public administration, economics, and International Development from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Economics from San Diego State University. He is from Zambia.
Dr. Richard Banda

Dr. Richard Banda

WHO
WHO Representative
 
 
 
Prior to joining the Namibia WHO Country office, Richard was WHO Representative to the Kingdom of Lesotho for close to 5 years. He is a public health specialist with over 25 years’ experience in the health sector facilitating health policy formulation, technical cooperation, policy dialogue at both national and international levels. He joined WHO 20 years ago.

Since 2009, he has closely and directly worked with the national TB/HIV programs in the sub-Saharan region aligning national goals with global priorities to ensure efficient program implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Other previous duty stations include Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya and Malawi. He has also been intimately involved in managing public health emergency responses including Covid-19 pandemic, Ebola, cholera, floods and pandemic influenza preparedness in several countries.

Richard’s career started off at the peak of the HIV epidemic in his native country, Malawi, at the turn of the century before the introduction of antiretroviral therapy. He graduated in medicine, and he holds postgraduate qualifications in infectious diseases, health economics and tropical medicine. He is married to a nurse with three children. His professional goals for the next couple of years focus on the efforts to attain universal health coverage by facilitating uptake of evidence-based health policies.
Ms. Erika Goldson

Erika Goldson

UNFPA
UNFPA Representative
 
In her role as UNFPA Resident Representative, Erika Goldson will provide overall vision and leadership for the work of UNFPA in Namibia and is accountable for the implementation of UNFPA’s country programme and operations.

A national of Belize, Erika brings over 34 years of experience in strategic leadership, programme management and international development at regional and national levels.

Prior to assuming her role as Resident Representative, Erika was most recently the UNFPA Deputy Representative of Nigeria, providing strategic direction and technical leadership for the implementation of the UNFPA programme.

Erika has also served in several other capacities in UNFPA including as the UNFPA Deputy Representative of Ghana and the Assistant Representative for UNFPA Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean in Belize.

Prior to these appointments, Erika worked in various positions with the Government of Belize, Ministry of Health. This included but is not limited to the Technical Adviser Health Promotion, Coordinator Health Education Unit and Public Health Inspector.

She has a Master of Public Health – Health Promotion Stream (MSc.), University of London, Post-Graduate Diploma, Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Post-Graduate Diploma in Community Health, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica and Associate Degree in Environmental & Sanitary Engineering, University of Belize, Belize City, Belize.
Ms. Eunice Smith

Eunice Smith

UNESCO
UNESCO Representative
 
Ms. Eunice Smith (Grenada) has worked in public service for over 29 years, 25 of which has been as an International Civil Servant with UNESCO. She began her career in 1990 as a tourism marketing officer with the Grenada Board of Tourism in New York (United States). In 1998 she joined UNESCO as a Young Professional/Assistant Officer, and has held roles such as Chief of the UNESCO Antenna Office in the Republic of South Sudan (2008-2011), Officer-in-Charge of the UNESCO Beijing Cluster Office (2015), Programme Specialist for Social and Human Sciences, and Programme Planning Officer in UNESCO’s Bureau of Strategic Planning. She was appointed Head of Office and Representative to Namibia effective 30 September 2023.

Ms. Smith has worked on a variety of development programs focused on promoting the human rights and social inclusion of vulnerable population groups, poverty eradication, and post conflict recovery and reconstruction; she has contributed to policy formulation, supported development research, and institutional capacity building including in China, Mongolia, Palestine, South Sudan, and the Great Lakes region in Africa. Her experience include coordinating the UNESCO Category 2 partnership modality, reporting to UNESCO’s governing bodies, and monitoring programme implementation.

She holds a Masters degree in International Development from the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), a Postgraduate diploma in Law from the University of Law (England and Wales, United Kingdom), and a Masters degree in Tourism Management from New York University (United States of America).
Ms. Fafa N’Konou

Fafa N’Konou

UNHCR
Head of Field Office
 
Fafa N’KONOU has a strong background in international law and conflict resolution. Her career with UNHCR started in 2010 at the Regional Office for West Africa in Sénégal. She then moved on to country operations in Niger and Côte d'Ivoire.

Additionally, she has served as a trainer for peacekeeping operations for the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States.

Mrs. N'Konou's experience also includes a few years of dedicated service to the government of Quebec in Canada.
Florence Ntombesibini Situmbeko

Florence Ntombesibini Situmbeko

IOM
IOM Head of Office
 
FLORENCE NTOMBESIBINI SITUMBEKO (Ms.) was appointed as IOM Namibia Head of Office in February 2020 up to date. Prior to this appointment Florence worked for the International Detention Coalition (IDC) as the Africa Programme Officer in 2019 where she supported the Africa Regional Coordinator in strengthening the coalition, mapping alternatives to immigration detention, and facilitating regional collaboration on the implementation of alternatives to immigration detention. Florence worked for IOM Namibia for four years under the Counter Trafficking Unit, co-managing counter trafficking projects. Florence started her career as a frontline social worker and as well as a senior social worker where she worked for 12 years at regional and national level for the Namibian Government (Ministry Health and Social Services and Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare.) She also holds a Bachelor’s Degree (Honours) in social work from the University of Namibia.
Mr. Tiwonge Machiwenyika

Mr. Tiwonge Machiwenyika

WFP
Acting Country Director
Mr. Tiwonge Machiwenyika joins the WFP Country Office as Officer in Charge and Acting Country Director. He brings extensive experience from his role as Head of Climate at the WFP Regional Bureau, where he supported 12 SADC countries in developing resilience-building programs against shocks and stressors.

From 2018 to 2022, Mr. Machiwenyika served as Head of Programme in Iraq, leading the shift from emergency-focused to development-focused programming. His work there centered on updating Iraq's social protection system and expanding climate adaptation initiatives.

With over 15 years of experience at WFP, Mr. Machiwenyika has expertise in resilience and livelihoods programming, cash-based transfers, vulnerability analysis and mapping, M&E, and emergency programming. His career with WFP spans across Iraq, Malawi, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe.

Before joining WFP, he worked at the Southern Africa Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) in Harare, focusing on free access to knowledge and information within the SADC region.

A Zimbabwean national, Mr. Machiwenyika holds a bachelor's degree in computer science and mathematics from the University of Zimbabwe and a master's degree in strategic business management from Chinhoyi University of Science and Technology.

Philile Masuku

ILO
ILO Representative
 
 
 
Ms. Qingyun Diao

Qingyun Diao

FAO
FAO Representative
 
Ms. Diao, a national of China, holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Entomology, a Master of Science in Entomology, and a Bachelor of Science in Entomology from China Agricultural University in Beijing, China.

Prior to joining FAO, Ms. Diao has been serving as First Secretary/Chief of the Agricultural Office at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Mexico City, Mexico, since 2018.

Ms. Diao started her career in 1998 as a Scientist at the Institute of Apicultural Research in Beijing, China. From 2007 to 2015, she served as Director of the Management Department of the Institute of Apicultural Research and concurrently, from 2007 to 2010, she was Director of the Management Office of the National Special Research Projects for the Public Welfare Industries in Beijing. From 2010 to 2015, she was Chief Scientist of the National Key Technology Research and Development Programme of China. Between 2009 and 2018, she was the Director of the Management Office of China Apiculture.

Research System in Beijing. From 2014 to 2022, she served as Director of International Cooperation Projects of the Institute of Apicultural Research and, from 2015 to 2021, she was Chief Scientist of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in Beijing, China.
Samuel Ocran

Samuel Ocran

UNICEF
UNICEF Representative
 
 
 
Mr. Samuel Kweku Ocran, is the UNICEF Namibia Representative to Namibia. Mr. Ocran a Ghanian national, served as UNICEF Regional Chief of Supply & Procurement based in Nairobi, Kenya where he commenced his assignment in 2020. He was responsible for overall leadership, guidance, oversight, and direction to the Regional Office, supporting the 21 County Offices on supply chain management, ensuring access to essential products in line with the UNICEF Strategic Plan.

His assignment also saw him supporting capacity building, national systems strengthening, strategic promotion of Supply and results in collaboration with UN Agencies to support the implementation of UNICEF Country Programmes and UN Cooperation Frameworks.