Our Team in Namibia

Ms. Hopolang Phororo of Lesotho has devoted more than 20 years to public service. She previously served as the ILO Director in the Country Office for Zimbabwe and Namibia for just over 7 years. She has worked for the ILO for the past 11 years, as the 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.

Prior to 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 UNDP and prior to that as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Southern African Studies and as Marketing Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture. She 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 possesses an honor’s degree in Psychology from the University of South Africa.

Igor Ciobanu, a Moldovan national, has served as Ad-interim Representative at the UNHCR South African Multi Country Office, covering Botswana, Comoros, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, and South Africa, since 1 August 2024. Prior to this, he was Deputy Representative since February 2021. He brings over 29 years of experience in diplomacy, humanitarian work, law, and academia.

Igor began his career in 1992 at Moldova's Ministry of Justice before leading European affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He subsequently served as Director of International Relations at ULIM University, where he taught and published extensively on human rights.

Since joining the UNHCR in 1998, he has led refugee and humanitarian operations in Moldova, Serbia, Kosovo, Uganda, South Sudan, Central Europe, Kyrgyzstan, Greece, Sudan, Namibia, and Bangladesh, with a focus on emergency response, refugee protection, statelessness eradication, and peacebuilding. He speaks English, Russian, Romanian and French.

Ms. Abigail Noko is the Regional Representative of the Regional Office of OHCHR in Southern Africa. She has worked at OHCHR for more than 20 years in various capacities. Prior to her current posting, she oversaw OHCHR’s work from headquarters in east and southern Africa and the African Union and undertook special assignments in Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Previously she was Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights, the adviser on HIV and worked on external relations and donor relations. Before joining OHCHR, she worked with UNHCR and in the private sector.

Ms. Aleta Miller joined the South Africa Multi Country Office in April 2022, having served as Country Representative at UN Women Afghanistan since April 2018 and previously as the UN Women Representative of the Fiji Multi-Country Office, covering 14 Pacific Island nations.

Aleta has extensive experience in Women’s Rights, Human Rights, Refugee Rights, Public Health, and International Development, gained through more than 25 years of professional engagement, including with UN Women, UNFPA and UNAIDS, and several NGOs and Governments.

In addition to the above, she served in Myanmar, China, Hong Kong, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, as well as New York, and her native Austral- ia. Aleta is a Clinical Psychologist (Australian registered, non-practicing status) and holds a Master's degree in International Public Health, along with undergraduate degrees in Behavioral Science and in Occupational Health.

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.

Mr. Abbashar was appointed as the Chief of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Regional Office for Africa in 2016. From 2010 to 2015, he was the Chief of the UNDRR Regional Office for Arab States in Cairo, Egypt.

Mr. Abbashar began his United Nations career in the early 1990’s serving as Programme Officer with the UNDP Emergency Unit in Sudan dealing with Operation Lifeline Sudan.
From 1995 - 1997 he served as Field Coordinator in the Department of Humanitarian Affairs in Monrovia during the Liberian civil war, and from 1998 to 1999 he was assigned as Deputy Head office in OCHA Sierra Leone. He joined the Policy Development and Studies Branch at OCHA Headquarters in New York in 1999, serving as a Humanitarian Affairs Officer focusing on inter- governmental matters related to the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council.

From 2004 - 2005, Mr. Abbashar served as the Chief of Staff of OCHA. Later- in 2006, he was Chief of the Policy Planning and Analyses Section where he focused on developing policies related to humanitarian affairs and their interface with the UN’s development, political and peacekeeping agendas. In 2006 he helped establish the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). Later he was part of the small team that established the United Nations Peace-building Support office and the Human Security Trust Fund. Mr. Abbashar graduated from Khartoum University and obtained an MA in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia.

Ms. Clara Makenya is the head of Tanzania office and focal point for the UN Environment Program in Namibia and has been with the organization for 9 years. She has over 15 years of experience in strategic management and coordination roles within and outside the UN system. Clara holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Forestry and a Master’s degree in Dryland Biodiversity.

While working with the UN Environment Program, Clara has collaborated with different partners and stakeholders including UN sister organizations, government ministries, departments, and agencies, as well as NGOs and the private sectors to influence the environmental agenda in Tanzania and beyond. She has also promoted and advocated for the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the UN system in Tanzania.

Prior to working with the UN, Clara worked with World Vision Australia in Melbourne, Australia and World Vision Tanzania in Arusha, Tanzania for a total of 7 years. World Vision is a community-based and child-centered organization focused on transformational development. Her main role was to manage sustainable and transformational development programs, while managing donor partnerships in Australia, as well as enhancing implementation of the programs in developing countries including Tanzania, Somalia, and Chad.

Clara believes in the integrated approach to achieve sustainable development goals and maximize sustainable development impacts; and takes pleasure in coordinating with professional peers from all disciplines.

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.

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 (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).

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. Francesco Maria Rispoli is a Country Director in the East and Southern Africa Division at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). He is currently the Head of the IFAD Southern Africa Multi-Country Office in Johannesburg and Country Director for Eswatini, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Previously he was Country Director for Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. His responsibilities include managing the development of country strategies and programmes to reduce extreme rural poverty and advocating for an enhancement of national government programmes that improve the access of poor rural people to natural resources, agricultural technologies, financial services, markets, employment opportunities and enterprise development. Previously, Francesco served in the Sustainable Production, Markets and Institutions (PMI) Division of IFAD, where he promoted and supported financial sector development projects at all stages of design and implementation. He has also been leading IFAD’s work on agricultural insurance for several years. From 2015 to 2018, he served in the Board of Directors of the Micro Insurance Network, a global organization committed to building a world where people of all income levels are more resilient and less vulnerable to daily and catastrophic risks through improved access to effective risk management tools, including insurance services. Before joining IFAD, he worked with UNDP and as a manager in different consulting firms. He has working experience in over 15 countries in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. Francesco holds a BA in Political Science-International Relations from University of Rome and a Mater in Business Administration from Solvay Business School of Brussels, Belgium.

Ms. Halima Letamo heads the ITU area office for Southern Africa. She is a seasoned ICT professional with over 25 years’ work experience. Ms. Letamo worked within the ITU forr the past 10 years prior to this appointment, managing global initiatives aimed at the implementation of the ITU capacity development portfolio, focusing on skills development of ICT professionals, institutional capacity development for ITU Member States and basic digital skills development for underserved communities. She has facilitated the World Summit on the Information Society Action line C4 for the past 9 years driving global policy dialogue and facilitated capacity development of ICT professionals in topics such as AI, e-Applications, e- health, e-agriculture, e-learning, ICT policy and regulation, cyber security, spectrum management and emergency telecommunications among others.

She has experience in the implementation of resource mobilisation strategies, project management for development organisations, strategic management and has served in executive boards of global organisations such as the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation. Prior to her work at the ITU, Ms. Letamo worked for the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation, a Telecommunications national incumbent. Her footprint in the organisation can be traced to the privatisation process of the company where she headed the department dealing with the process re-engineering, change management and talent management streams of this process. Ms. Letamo has also worked for UNESCO, within the Education Sector where she supported advocacy for UNESCOs standard setting instruments.
She has also worked for the Education regulator and the Botswana Government. She holds a bachelor's degree in Demography and Environmental Science, covering Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems, Master’s degree in Education, a Master’s degree in Business Administration as well as several professional certifications.

Mr. Masayuki Yokota has more than 26 years’ professional experience in urban and regional planning, urban development, housing, land and property rights (HLP), disaster risk management and emergency response including 9 years’ experience in Japan and 17 years with the UN-Habitat in challenging and/or crisis-affected field environment including Kosovo, Kuwait, Iraq, Libya, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. Masayuki is assigned to the Head of Sub Regional Hub for Southern Africa under the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Africa and covering 13 countries including Namibia. Masayuki also represented UN-Habitat HQ as a Sector Leader of Housing and Land in the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) team in Moldova to respond the flood and in Cape Verde for the volcano eruption. He owns Ph.D. of Engineering (urban and regional planning/disaster risk management), Chartered Town Planner of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) in the U.K. and the First-Class Architect in Japan.

Ms. Monica Belalcazar is a Drug Control and Crime Prevention Officer and the UNODC focal point for Namibia. A national of Colombia and Austria, she has over 20 years of professional experience in international development cooperation and humanitarian affairs.

Her areas of work have included interagency coordination and partnership building, strategic planning and results-based management, donor relations and private-sector partnerships, humanitarian financing and trust fund management. Recently she was appointed as the UNODC Regional Advisor on youth engagement in Africa.

She has worked for UNDP Colombia on peace and development programmes, for the European Commission in the Philippines and Brussels, for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in New York and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna and is currently based in Pretoria.

In her role as the Head of the Strategic Planning and Interagency Affairs Unit at UNODC, she was the focal point for the UN Development System Reform and member of various task teams and the UNSDG Focal Points group. She is currently a member of the Africa Regional Peer Support Group in support of the Cooperation Framework process.

As Country Director and Representative, Mrs. Labidi works closely with the Government of the Republic of Namibia and partners to provide leadership and strategic direction to WFP's programmes in Namibia. She is an experienced humanitarian and development professional with extensive expertise in food security, nutrition analysis, emergency preparedness, and program management.

With over two decades of leadership experience, she has successfully managed large-scale programs, coordinated teams, and mobilized resources for humanitarian efforts in high-risk regions. Fluent in Arabic, English, and French, she has worked with leading global organizations, including the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Most recently, she completed a short-term deployment in West Africa, where she led a prioritization exercise for major operations in the region. She previously served as the Head of Needs Assessment and Targeting at WFP, where she provided strategic direction for food security assessments and initiatives, managing a substantial budget and collaborating with global partners and donors. Mrs. Labidi has provided leadership during numerous humanitarian emergencies, including Madagascar in 2017 and the Ebola Crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She holds a Master’s Degree in Econometrics and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, both from the University of Pantheon-Sorbonne in Paris, France, and combines strong analytical skills with practical experience to address food security challenges and drive impactful solutions in humanitarian contexts.

Ms. Philile Ntombikayise Masuku was appointed Director of the ILO Country for Zimbabwe and Namibia on 1 May 2023.

Prior to that, she held several positions including that of Deputy Head of Mission (2017-2023) in the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Eswatini in Geneva, Switzerland and had been acting Chargée d’affaires from 2020 in the same mission. From 2015-2017 Ms. Masuku was Acting Deputy Head of Mission in the Embassy of the Kingdom of Eswatini in Brussels, Belgium. She was also First Secretary for Trade, Investment and Tourism in the same Mission from 2007 -2015.

She started her career as Trade Information Analyst Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Mbabane, Eswatini.

Philile holds a Master’s in International Trade from the University of Saskatchewan and a Masters' in International Studies from Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and a Bachelor of Communications and International Marketing from St Andrews University in the USA.

“I am very happy to be taking up this role at a time when both Zimbabwe and Namibia are looking to building a future of work that uplifts the peoples of the two countries," she said.

Puleng is a public health, human rights, and gender activist and adviser with more than 24 years’ experience in public health, gender and development communication. She has led programmes and initiatives on HIV, Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, human rights, menstrual health, civil society organisations (CSO) strengthening and organisational development.

She has been a Technical Review Panel member (Equity, Human Rights and Gender Expert; including PSEA) for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) SocialNet – a team of 23 social scientists trained to integrate social science-based interventions into health emergencies.

As a national of the Kingdom of Lesotho, she has worked nationally and internationally with governments, national and international non-governmental organisations, and with the United Nations (UNDP, UNFPA), and has provided technical and advisory support to various countries in Southern Africa. She currently works as an Adviser – Services for All and the current Officer In Charge of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Namibia.

Puleng has a PhD in Psychology of Education (Sexuality Education, Adolescent Health, Gender and Culture); Master of Philosophy in Human Rights, a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology; a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health; and a Bachelor of Education degree.

Ms. Qingyun Diao, a distinguished entomologist from China with a Ph.D., M.S., and
B.S. in Entomology from China Agricultural University, has held various significant roles throughout her career. She previously served as the First Secretary/Chief of the Agricultural Office at the Embassy of China in Mexico City.

Her career started in 1998 at the Institute of Apicultural Research in Beijing, and she held key positions there until 2010. She was also Chief Scientist for China's National Key Technology Research and Development Programme and Director of the Management Office of China Apiculture Research System. Her impactful career highlights her dedication to entomology and international agricultural cooperation.

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.

Mr. Sébastien Turrel is Senior Trade Promotion Officer, Office for Africa, at the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva, Switzerland. He is an expert on international trade and export related matters with close to 30 years’ experience in private sector development for developing countries. He has been working as Country Manager for the East and Southern African regions for more than 18 years providing support in the facilitation of trade policies, market analysis, trade information, technical cooperation with MSMEs, gender issues, partnership development and fund raising. Prior his current functions at the ITC, he worked that the World Economic Forum, at the Legal Department of the Council of Europe and at the United Nations Environment Programme’s Office in Geneva.

He holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the Geneva Graduate Institute and a Bachelor in Political Science (Honors) from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.