Secretary-General Appoints Lila Pieters Yahia of Canada United Nations Resident Coordinator in Mauritania

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Lila Pieters Yahia of Canada as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Mauritania, with the host Government’s approval.  She took up her post on 7 November.

Ms. Pieters Yahia has devoted more than 20 years to public service.  She previously served as the United Nations Resident Coordinator ad interim in Armenia, Equatorial Guinea and Tunisia.  There, jointly with United Nations teams, she led the support to Governments and other partners on the implementation of the COVID-19 pandemic response, food, energy and finance crises responses, the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063 of the African Union and humanitarian crises response.  Ms. Pieters Yahia also coordinated the United Nations reform roll-out and development and management of the new generation of the United Nations Cooperation Framework.

She has extensive experience in establishing partnerships, notably with international financial institutions, the private sector, civil society, women and youth.  Ms. Pieters Yahia also accompanies national authorities with their economic reform programmes to address their development needs including achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; implementing institutional reforms in public administration, security sector, fiscal, monetary and financial-sector policy areas; and creating fiscal space to increase priority spending on human rights and gender, climate change and green jobs, education, health, social protection and agriculture and food security.

Prior to joining the United Nations Secretariat in 2020, Ms. Pieters Yahia held numerous positions at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Africa, Europe and Asia, including Country Representative in Tunisia.  She focused the policy dialogue on the development agenda and the realization of every child rights.  She has also a track record working with Governments on their reforms agenda, including in public finance and strengthening national systems to deliver quality services to women, children and youth.  In addition, she has demonstrated her adeptness at effective management, innovation and caring for multicultural and multidisciplinary teams.

Ms. Pieters Yahia obtained her master’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom.  She has two sons.