Secretary-General Appoints Fadzai Gwaradzimba of Zimbabwe Assistant Secretary-General for Safety and Security

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today the appointment of Fadzai Gwaradzimba of Zimbabwe as the Assistant Secretary-General for Safety and Security.  Ms. Gwaradzimba succeeds Ms. Mbaranga Gasarabwe of Rwanda, who was appointed as Deputy Special Representative for Mali in May.  The Secretary-General is grateful for Ms. Gasarabwe’s dedicated service and management of the Department as the first Assistant Secretary-General for Safety and Security.

Ms. Gwaradzimba brings a wealth of experience in strategic management and leadership, coupled with in depth knowledge of international development, crisis prevention and recovery, evaluation design and practice and gender issues.  She has over 25 years of experience with the United Nations system, and most recently held the position of Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Director, Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA) for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York.

Prior to that, she was the Division Chief for South and West Asia for six years.  Ms. Gwaradzimba has previously been the Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in the Gambia, and Deputy Resident Representative in Malawi and Barbados.  She began her career with UNDP in Somalia in 1989 and held various positions with UNDP in New York as a Programme Manager and Senior Evaluation Advisor and also served with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations as a Deputy Municipal Administrator in Kosovo from 2000 to 2001.

Ms. Gwaradzimba holds a Doctor of Philosophy in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University, a master’s degree in public affairs and international studies from the University of Oregon, a diploma in economics from the University of Colorado, and a bachelor of political science and public administration from the University of Zimbabwe.

Born in 1953, she is married with has one daughter.