Zanofer Ismalebbe Appointed as Chief of Knowledge Management at UNOSSC

Mr. Zanofer Ismalebbe has joined UNOSSC HQ as the Chief of Knowledge Management. He brings over 22 years of global, regional and country level development, humanitarian, conflict, post-conflict and human rights policy and programme leadership, diplomacy, representation, partnerships, and coordination.

Until recently, he served as the UNOSSC Regional Chief - Division for Arabs States, Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Istanbul, and led and launched a wide range of strategic and catalytic policy, research, knowledge and partnerships initiatives aimed at regionalizing UNOSSC’s global and UN system-wide mandates as well as supporting country level priorities, in collaboration with regional and sub-regional institutions, regional UN entities, national institutions, Resident Coordinator Offices,  UN Country Teams, and other stakeholders in the two regions.

Prior to this regional function, he served as the Team Leader - Intergovernmental Engagement and Team Leader ad interim - UN System Affairs in the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (UNDP New York); Senior Policy Specialist (Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General, New York);  Policy Advisor and Global Programme Manager (UNDP Geneva); Human Rights Development Officer (UN Resident Coordinator System, Tashkent); Programme Officer (UNDP Tashkent); Programme Officer (UNICEF Colombo); Legal Consultant (UNHCR Colombo) and Consultant (Office of the Representative, UNHCR London). He has also worked as a Researcher at the Law and Society Trust (Colombo).

He is a lawyer by training with a Master of Law (LL.M.) from the University of Essex, UK, where he was a ‘Chevening Scholar’ of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the University of Massachusetts, USA. He has also completed several leadership and managerial learning initiatives through the Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University); Ross School of Business (University of Michigan); Harvard Business School; and the UN System Staff College.