SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS SHALINI DEWAN AS DIRECTOR OF UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION CENTRE IN ROME

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS SHALINI DEWAN AS DIRECTOR

OF UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION CENTRE IN ROME

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Shalini Dewan as the Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Rome.  She took up her duties on

3 December.

Ms. Dewan, a national of the United States, joins the United Nations from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome where she served as Chief of the Publishing and Multimedia Service, General Affairs and Information Department.  She has more than 30 years of experience in the field of information, including

23 years in the United Nations system, having initially joined the Organization as an Information Officer in the United Nations Department of Public Information at Headquarters in 1978.  In 1986, Ms. Dewan moved to the United Nations Information Service in Vienna, where she was fully responsible for all English-language media and communication activities and managed the press coverage of numerous United Nations meetings worldwide.  While based in Vienna, Ms. Dewan undertook a mission assignment as Deputy Regional Director of the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in Namibia in 1989. 

In 1992, Ms. Dewan joined the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in New York as Chief of the Editorial and Publications Section, Division of Communication.  In this capacity, she developed, planned and implemented UNICEF’s editorial and publications strategy and was responsible for all flagship and advocacy publications.  She also served as UNICEF’s Media Spokesperson at several major international conferences, including the World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993), the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995) and the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995).  Ms. Dewan left UNICEF in 1998 to join FAO.

As Chief of FAO’s Publishing and Multimedia Service for the past three years, Ms. Dewan was responsible for the conceptualization and editorial management of a wide range of print and electronic products and advised technical departments in formulating their annual communication and publishing plans.  Among her achievements, Ms. Dewan introduced the corporate policy on print and electronic publications to streamline the publishing process and increase outreach and spearheaded a project on the development of a corporate visual identity for the organization. 

Prior to joining the United Nations, Ms. Dewan worked as a journalist for The Hindustan Times, a leading newspaper in India, and as an editor at a major publishing house, also in India.  In 1981, she served as New York correspondent for the Inter Press Service.

Ms. Dewan holds a master’s degree in Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature (Hons.), French and Psychology, from Panjab University, Chandigarh, India.  Born in 1950 in Simla, India, Ms. Dewan became a citizen of the United States in 1983.

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