Our Team in Namibia

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.

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.

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; a Bachelor of Education degree, and enrolled for a Master’s degree in Public Health.

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.

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. 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.