Our Team in The Gambia

Dr. Desta Tiruneh is a national of Ethiopia who took up his duty as the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in The Gambia in September 2017. He joined the WHO in 2001 and served as an advisor in immunization programs as well as in the prevention, control, elimination, and eradication of communicable and non-communicable diseases/conditions for more than 17 years. Prior to joining WHO, he started his professional career as a medical doctor, served as an assistant professor in a medical school, and held various positions in managing health programs and offices at district, regional and national levels. He earned his MD and MPH degrees from the University of Addis Ababa. Dr. Tiruneh is a national of Ethiopia. He is married and has two daughters.

George Is the Senior Development Coordination Officer & Team Leader Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator

Mr. Andrea Ori is the West Africa Representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, since 2013.
With more than 20 years of experience in the field of human rights in Africa and the Middle East, he has held senior positions within the UN. Before joining Dakar, he was the regional representative for North Africa of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in Tunis.
The Regional Office for West Africa of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights) is the leading UN entity in charge of the promotion and protection of the full range of human rights and freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Operational since September 2008, the office is based in Dakar, Senegal.

Gordon Jonathan Lewis is the UNICEF Representative in The Gambia. Prior to joining the UNICEF country office in The Gambia in August 2020, Mr. Lewis served as UNICEF Representative in Costa Rica from 2015 to 2020. He has also worked in several countries as UNICEF Representative, including Botswana (2002-2006), Bolivia (2007-2010) and El Salvador (2010-2015). Mr. Lewis joined UNICEF in 1991 in Angola, where he held various positions until 1998, including Project Officer posts for Planning, Emergency, and Monitoring and Evaluation. From 1998 to 2001, he served as Programme Officer for Social Policy and Planning and Deputy Representative in Jamaica. Mr. Lewis, an American and British national who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, holds a Bachelor and Master of Arts Degrees in History from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.

Mamadou Diouldé Barry is the IMF Resident Representative to The Gambia. Prior to joining the IMF, Mr. Barry worked as an economist of IMF teams covering Mali, Niger and Cameroon, leveraging his extensive experience in helping low income and fragile countries address their socio-economic challenges. Mr. Barry joined the IMF in 2002 as an economist in the IMF Resident Representative Office in Guinea, after having worked as an intern with the Central Bank of Guinea. In 2010, he returned to government as an assistant to the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs until his re-appointment to the IMF in 2013. Mr. Barry, a national of Guinea, holds an Associate Degree in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Mohamed V, Rabat Morocco, a Master of Arts in Economics and Applied Statistics from ENSEA, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, and a Master of Arts in Policy Economics from the Center for Development Economics of Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA.

Raimund Moser is the representative of the International Trade Centre in The Gambia. He oversees ITC’s different private sector support progammes including the Gambia Youth Empowerment Project (YEP), SheTrades Gambia, the skills component of the Jobs Skills and Finance (JSF) project and ITC’s work on economic empowerment under the UN Peacebuilding Fund. Prior to this role, he served as Programme Development Adviser and Country Manager covering the South-East Asia region at ITC and worked on entrepreneurship development and international value chains at UNCTAD. He is a co-founder of the ITC innovation lab and the Geneva Global Goals Innovation Day association. Raimund, a Swiss and Ivorian national, grew up in the Swiss alps and holds an MA from the Graduate Institute in Geneva. He is fluent in English, French and German and gets by in Spanish and Italian.

Mr. Yasuhiro Tsumura is the Representative and Country Director of World Food Programme in The Gambia. He assumed duties on 9th November 2020. He joined WFP in 1998 and since then has served in different countries such as: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, Japan, Kosovo, Liberia, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone. He has a wealth of experience in Food Assistance Coordination, Emergency Preparedness and Response, and Sustainable Food Security. Yasuhiro is a national of Japan. He speaks Japanese, English and French. He is a holder of Master of Arts in International Relations..

A French national, Mr. Christophe Yvetot, is the UNIDO Representative for Cabo-Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and The Gambia, with residence in Dakar, Senegal since 2018. Before his appointment, he served as UNIDO Representative to the European Union, the European Investment Bank, the ACP Secretariat, Belgium and Luxembourg, based in Brussels. Mr. Christophe YVETOT joined UNIDO in 2004 as Strategic Donor Relations Officer. He has also worked in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Policy Officer in the Office of the Director General. in charge of interagency cooperation, development and research partnerships with the private sector. He holds a BA in Law, a Degree in Tax and Business Law and two Masters in “International Development Law” and “Enterprises and Developing Countries, legal and financial approach”. He has contributed enormously to international conferences and workshops as moderator and speaker and to international reports and publications.

Ms. Agathe Nougaret is the Country Manager ad interim for the UNOPS Office in The Gambia. With more than 13 years experience in 5 countries, spanning policy, strategy, project development, implementation and quality assurance.

Ms. Aissata De, UNDP Resident Representative in The Gambia has more than 20 years experience with the UN and UNDP in the areas of governance, gender, electoral assistance, security sector reform, rule of law, human rights, recovery and reintegration. Ms. De served in Senegal, Mozambique, Cambodia and later led UNDP election support in DRC as the Senior Elections Advisor (2005-2008). She also served as Deputy Country Director-Programme in Burundi and Côte d’Ivoire and worked at Headquarters as Regional Advisor/Cluster leader for Central Africa in the Country Oversight Team at the Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA). She worked in three countries with DPKO/DPA missions during the last decade.

Feyi Boroffice is the Resident Representative of the World Bank to The Gambia responsible for engaging and managing policy dialogue with the Government. She joined the World Bank in 2010 leading projects in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Prior to this appointment, she was a Senior Private Sector Specialist at the World Bank office in Nigeria and served as the Focal Point for the Finance Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice. Feyi spent a decade in the private sector working for global organizations including Ernst & Young where she supervised audit projects, and Exxon Mobil where she worked in the company’s Treasurer’s division on mergers and acquisitions, pension fund management and investment projects. She also has experience as an entrepreneur as founder of 2Hats Network, a leadership development company for professional women with multinational clients including Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Citibank, and ING. Feyi obtained her MBA from Harvard Business School, obtained her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Boston University and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the United States.

Fumiko Nagano is the Chief of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in The Gambia. Prior to assuming this role in July 2017, Fumiko was posted to Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, and the Asia-Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok since joining IOM in May 2010. She is conversant in a range of thematic areas in migration management, including policy and coordination work. From 2004 to 2010, Fumiko worked at the World Bank in Washington, DC, where she researched the role of communication in governance and anti-corruption efforts.
Originally from Japan, Fumiko has been a migrant since she moved to the United States in middle school: an experience that sparked her interest in migration. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Russian from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master’s degree in International Relations and Economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She speaks English, Japanese and Russian.

Ms Moshibudi Rampedi is the Representative of FAO in the Republic of Gambia since 1 September 2019. Before joining FAO, Ms Rampedi, a national of South Africa, served as Chief Executive Officer at the South African National Biodiversity Institute. Ms Rampedi joined the public service in 1985. She was appointed Deputy Director-General (DDG) of Forestry in the National Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in 2006. From 2009, she served as the DDG Forestry and Natural Resources Management in the National Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. In 2012, she joined the South African Embassy in Rome as Counsellor Agricultural Affairs and Permanent Representative to the Rome-based UN Agencies. She holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of South Africa; a Master of Science in Ecology from the University of Wales, UK; and a Bachelor of Science (with Honours) in Botany from the University of Fort Hare, South Africa.

Ms. Ndeye Rose Sarr is the UNFPA representative in The Gambia. Prior to this role, she served as the Regional Desk Specialist for the West and Central Africa Region, a position she held for seven years. In that position, Ms. Sarr provided leadership, policy advice and strategic partnerships building for the region and supported the Eastern and Southern Africa desk. She also contributed to the development of various Country Programmes, supported quality assurance, human resources alignments and capacity development of staff in country offices through the Programme Review Committee (PRC) and the Internal Consulting Group (ICG). She engaged with counterparts in other UN agencies and Member States at headquarters’ level to ensure quality and coherence of programmes, strategic positioning, advocacy and policy dialogue, partnerships and visibility for UNFPA.

Before joining UNFPA, Ms. Sarr gathered extensive programme management experience from the nonprofit sector and through her previous roles at UN Women and UNDP. She has administered multiple grants for programs in Asia and Africa related to capacity building of civil society organisations, gender equality, violence against women, and women’s health and reproductive rights.

Ms. Sarr has field and community development experience working in Senegal her home country with the World Bank, in South Africa for the Open Society Initiative in Southern Africa (OSISA) and the German Technical Cooperation.

She undertook advocacy for the ICPD Programme of Action and the Beijing Platform of Action through programming and policy dialogue for human rights and public-private partnerships. She was part of the team that developed UNDP Gender Equality Seal and co-led the development of UNFPA’s Social and Environmental Standards for Programming.

Ms. Sarr is an engaged employee in UNFPA for staff wellbeing and development. She co-leads the employee resource group known as women@unfpa and is currently the Vice Chairperson of the Paul Hoffman Fund dedicated to supporting staff in times of financial needs.

Ms. Sarr holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada and a Master of Arts Degree in International Relations from the Webster University in Saint Louis, Missouri. She is fluent in French and English and has a good command in Spanish.

Niania Dabo is the Programme Manager (Jobs, Skills and Finance (JSF) for Youth and Women) and Country Manager/Lead for the United Nation Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
Niania worked as a Policy Advocacy and Government Relationship consultant for the UNCDF from 2018 to 2020. Prior to joining UNCDF, she has held various senior management positions in investment and consumer banking, operations, marketing, training and performance improvement, process effectiveness, vendor management, people and performance management at the Standard Chartered Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank respectively.

Ms. Sirra Horeja Ndow is UNAIDS’ Country Director in The Gambia. She is highly knowledgeable of the Aids Response and instrumental in achievement of key initiatives such as the development, popularization and enforcement of the first HIV and Aids Act, the first Gender Assessment of the National Response, the first Resource mobilization strategy for the National Response; revitalization of a functional UN Joint Team; coordinator and manager of the focused UN Joint Programme on HIV and various UN cares initiatives; including enhanced capacity development of the 11 PLHIV Support groups and 2 umbrella HIV/AIDS Networks. Ms. Ndow also worked with UNDP as the Programme Analyst, overseeing the HIV/Aids and Gender portfolio. Prior to her work with UNDP, Sirra acquired diverse work experiences with various national, regional and international institutions including The Government of The Gambia, NGOs, UNDP, UNIFEM, Women in Development and as an intern with UNICEF in New York. She holds a Master of Science Degree in Development Economics and a Bachelor of Science in International Development from Cornell University in New York, USA.Ms. Ndow speaks English, Wolof and has a working knowledge of French.