Our Team in Papua New Guinea

Mr Richard Howard is the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Papua New Guinea.

Over more than 30 years, he has acquired an impressive portfolio in management and research, economic growth, gender equality and inclusion.

Before taking up his role in PNG, Mr Howard was the United Nations Resident Coordinator ad-interim in Nepal, where he also served as Country Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Mr. Howard worked as Senior Regional Specialist with ILO in Thailand. He was Chief Technical Advisor to Private Sector Partnerships on Health for Internal Migrants, in China.

A Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia with research focusing on gender, ethnicity, and national identity, Mr Howard is a Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology from the University of Illinois, Chicago and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Carolina.

On 7 December 2022, he was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as the UN Resident Coordinator for Papua New Guinea.

Mr. Nicholas Booth formally commenced his duties as the new UNDP Resident Representative in Papua New Guinea on September 22, 2023. Mr. Booth, who is a national of the United Kingdom, has served as an international civil servant under different UN agencies for 20 years.

A barrister with law degrees from both Cambridge and Oxford Universities in the United Kingdom, Mr. Booth has devoted his career to solving issues surrounding rule of law, access to justice and conflict prevention. He joins UNDP Papua New Guinea from UNDP’s Regional Hub in Bangkok, where he most recently took charge of managing the Regional Programme and Global Policy Network.

Saira has been involved in the field of health and human rights for over 27 years, spending the majority of this time within the UN system. Prior to her appointment as UNFPA Representative to Papua New Guinea, she served for four years as the UNFPA Deputy Representative to Fiji and Deputy Director for the Pacific Sub-Regional Office, covering 14 island countries and territories, where she strengthened the delivery of results in a severely climate-affected context. She has also served as a Political Scanning Specialist with the UNFPA Asia Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok, and as the Programme Advisor and Head-of-Office of UNFPA Malaysia, contributing towards advancing the UNFPA agenda on the intersectionality of socio-political and economic barriers to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Before joining UNFPA, she was the Executive Director of the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), a regional non-governmental organization focused on improving the lives of marginalized women and girls, and their right to sexual and reproductive health. She has also served in various capacities, including as Officer-in-Charge, of a regional UNDP governance programme for strengthening local government authorities and civil society for good urban governance, across the Asia Pacific.

A Malaysian national, Saira holds a Master of Science in Public Health for Development from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Health Science and Occupational Health and Safety from Edith Cowan University in Australia, and a Bachelor of Science in Physics, from Otago University in New Zealand.

Mr Wandera debuted his career with the ILO in March 2024 with the posting in the ILO Office for PICs. He is responsible for supporting eleven ILO member States (Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, Tonga, and Cook Islands). In addition, the Office also provides technical support to non-member Pacific Island States.

Across the Pacific Islands Countries, Mr Wandera oversees a wide range of work including promoting international labour standards and social dialogue, employment creation and skills development, rural and labour-intensive infrastructure development, national employment policy, youth employment initiatives, elimination of child labour and forced labour, gender equality, labour law reform, labour migration and mobility, and social protection.

Mr. Wandera, hailing from Uganda, boasts of over two decades of profound expertise in the fields of labour, employment and public administration. Before assuming his current role in Fiji, he dedicated nearly a decade to serving as the Director of Labour, Employment, and Occupational Safety and Health at the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development in Uganda. Preceding this position, he held the role of Director at the Centre for Labour Research and Studies in Uganda. Mr Wandera also served as a Member of the Ugandan Parliament.

Mr Wandera holds a Master of Science in Applied Labour Economics for Development University of Turin (Italy), Executive Master of Applied Labour Economics, Sciences Politiques Paris (France) and a Masters of Economic Development (Social Economy and Labour Concentration) from State University of Campinas, Sao Paulo (Brazil). He also holds a Bachelor of Arts (Economics and Political Science) of Makerere University, Kampala (Uganda).

Regional Representative, UNHCR Multi-Country Office Canberra. Formerly UNHCR Rep in Montenegro; UNHCR Head of Global News & Media. Background in human rights policy and international journalism. Switzerland, Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, Sudan & Cambodia with the UN. Vietnam, Hong Kong, South Korea, China in hackdom.

Retired Representative UNICEF in Liberia, Angola, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Somalia, and Syria Ms. Kearney was appointed as UNICEF Syria Representative a.i. from January until end of May 2023.

Ms. Kearney retired from UNICEF in September 2017 after 19 years of unbroken service. Ever since she left her native New Zealand in 1986 for a “one off”, six - month assignment with the International Red Cross, she has remained working at the international level, with frequent trips back to New Zealand over the years.
In the 32 years she has spent living and working overseas, she has held leading positions in protecting and promoting child rights. Her last full-time assignment was as UNICEF Representative in Pakistan. She has also served as UNICEF Representative in Indonesia during which, for four months, she led the organization’s disaster response during cyclone Haiyan, which had devastated many parts of the Philippines.

Ms. Kearney’s time with UNICEF also included stints as Representative in Angola between 2006 to 2009 and Liberia between 2003 to 2006.

More recently, Ms. Kearney was the Representative a.i. for Somalia from January to June in 2022. Ms. Kearney first joined UNICEF in 1998 as an emergency officer in Sudan. In 2002, she transferred to Afghanistan as Deputy Representative.

Mr. Bir C. Mandal has over 33 years of experience with World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Prior to joining as Head of FAO Office in PNG, he worked as Deputy FAO Representative in Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPR Korea) and Chief Technical Advisor in Northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. He had also held positions as International Consultant – Deputy Emergency Coordinator as well as Head of Darfur Operations from January 2004 to October 2005 based in Khartoum and Nyala, South Darfur, Sudan; during April 2002–December 2003, he headed FAO Area Office, Mazar-I-Sharif, Afghanistan. He served as International Consultant and Head of WFP Sub-Office in El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan during 2001–2002. He was Head of Sub-Office, WFP/UN Afghanistan (1997-98); Agronomist/Seed Specialist, FAO/UN Afghanistan (1988-96) based in different parts of Afghanistan and Islamabad; and Assistant Plant Protection Officer, Agriculture Extension and Research Project, Taulihawa, Nepal (1983-88).

Mr. Bir C. Mandal has published over 100 peer-reviewed write-ups/papers and these were highly appreciated by the concerned staff members.

Dr Sevil Huseynova engagement with WHO spans over 17 years where she previously held the posts of WHO Representative for the Solomon Islands from June 2016 until early 2022; WHO Country Liaison Officer for Northern Micronesia (Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and Marshal Islands), Medical Officer for TB, HIV, Leprosy and
Communicable Diseases Control Programmes in Baghdad, Iraq and in Kabul, Afghanistan where she led and managed large TB and HIV/AIDS and Leprosy control programmes in complex environments.

A strong advocate for cooperation and action on public health issues at all levels of society, Dr Huseynova has worked extensively with governments, donor partners, service providers and civil society.

Prior to joining WHO, Dr Huseynova served in a number of non-governmental organizations. Among them were Project Hope, a US-based organization with a field office in Kyrgystan, as the country manager and where she worked with a team to establish and strengthen all essential health system components relating TB control including governance, health service delivery, financing, health information and access to essential medicines and technologies and Save the Children and Relief International, USA with a strong focus on capacity building in public health targeting refugee and internally displaced population settings.

Previously, Dr Huseynova has also been engaged in clinical work, research and programme management.

Trained as a pediatrician, Dr Huseynova holds Doctorate of Medicine from the Azerbaijan Medical University and a Masters degree in Public Health from the State University of New York.

Heike Alefsen has 30 years of human rights, legal, political and development work experience with the United Nations, the Council of Europe and civil society. Since October 2020, she has been the UN Human Rights Pacific Regional Representative, heading OHCHR’s Regional Office in Suva, Fiji, covering 14 Pacific Island Countries, Australia and New Zealand.

For the past decade, she has worked in senior human rights advisory positions with the UN Development Group Asia-Pacific based in Bangkok and the UN Country Team in Bangladesh and served as Deputy Head of the OHCHR Regional Office for South-East Asia, with a focus on Myanmar. At OHCHR HQ in Geneva, she coordinated policy, communications and information of the Human Rights Council’s independent special procedures. Ms. Alefsen has
worked with the UN Division for the Advancement of Women and UN Development Fund for Women in New York and with the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Legal and Human Rights Divisions in Strasbourg. Following the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, she established the CoE Office in Sarajevo, serving as Representative. She started her professional career with Amnesty International’s Legal Office and its Eastern Europe Research Department in London.

Heike Alefsen holds an LL.M. in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex in Colchester, UK, and an M.A. from the University of Mainz in Germany.

Joeena Simpson is the Country Manager for the United Nations Office of Project Services. As part of the leadership team for the UN in Papua New Guinea, Jo will work in partnership with the PNG Government to respond to four interconnected challenges: sustainable infrastructure, climate change resilience, the empowerment of women in non -traditional roles and emergency response. Jo brings to the role a breadth of experience in infrastructure, social and economic development initiatives, safeguards and essential service delivery in a range of humanitarian contexts and will ensure that the strategic priorities of PNG Government consistently inform UNOPS approach to serving the people of PNG.
She has worked throughout the Pacific, including Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, Africa and Asia in a range of international development roles. Prior to joining UNOPS , Jo was the Transport Sector Development Manager under the PNG Australia Partnership for Development where she contributed to sustainable investment in Land, Aviation and Maritime Infrastructure throughout PNG and supported a range of innovative initiatives in public sector governance and in particular, promotion of women to leadership positions. She has a Masters in Technology and Innovation Management from the University of Queensland.

Ms Manoela Manova is the newly appointed UNAIDS Country Director for Papua New Guinea, and took up her assignment on 1st April 2022.
Ms Manova is a development and public health specialist with more than 20 years of experience in development assistance programmes, public health, and HIV, and has served in a variety of leadership positions both at regional and country level in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the Caribbean. She brings a wealth of experience in the areas of inclusive development and evaluation of National AIDS Strategic Plans, development of Investment Cases and efficiency studies for HIV response, National HIV Sustainability and Transition plans and roadmaps and mobilization of multisectoral partnerships for their implementation. She has worked on introducing Public-Private Partnership for increased access to treatment for PLH and piloting of Social Contracting as a tool to secure government Funding for HIV prevention services among key populations.

Ms Manova is Bulgarian and holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Management from the University of Economy in Bulgaria and Post Graduate Diplomas in International Business and Financial Management from London School of Economics, United Kingdom.

With a strong educational foundation, including a specialization in International Development from the State University of Bangladesh and a bachelor's degree in education and economics from Makerere University, Uganda, Peterson has dedicated over two decades to advancing gender equality and sustainable development in various international contexts.

Since 2020, Peterson has served as the Country Representative for UN Women in South Sudan, leading initiatives to empower women and address gender-based issues in a complex humanitarian environment. Prior to this role, Peterson held the position of Country Representative ad interim for UN Women in Moldova and Belarus (2019-2020) and served as Deputy Country Representative in Afghanistan and Liberia from 2017 to 2017.

Peterson's career began with Action for Development in Uganda, followed by pivotal roles in gender programming at UNDP in Papua New Guinea and HelpAge in Sudan. These varied experiences reflect his commitment to enhancing the lives of marginalized populations through strategic program development and implementation.

With a deep passion for public service and a proven track record of leadership in high-stakes environments, he continues to advocate for sustainable solutions to pressing global challenges.

Mr. Serhan Aktoprak took his functions in October 2021 as Chief of IOM Mission in Papua New Guinea. He has 15 years of experience in the field of migration management. From November 2018 until October 2021, he was the Head of Private Sector Partnerships Unit within International Cooperation and Partnerships Department of IOM Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, responsible for the effective coordination of IOM’s partnership with the private sector globally. He was Chief of Mission (2015-2018), Programme Manager and Officer in Charge (2011-2015), Project Officer (2009-2011) and Legal Officer (2007-2008) with the IOM Mission in Azerbaijan. From 2008 to 2009, he worked as Technical Programme Specialist in the IOM Mission in the Russian Federation.

Holding a Master’s Degree in European Studies, he is the author and co-author of a number of publications in the migration field. Serhan speaks English, Russian, Azerbaijani and Turkish.