Secretary-General Appoints Robert Piper of Australia as Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations Development Coordination Office

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Robert Piper of Australia as Assistant Secretary-General of the newly transformed United Nations Development Coordination Office.

Mr. Piper brings to the position nearly 30 years of experience in international development, humanitarian response and peacebuilding at the United Nations.  He is currently the Head of the United Nations Development System Transition Team which was established to provide strategic leadership and oversight to all aspects of the repositioning of the United Nations development system.  Prior to this position, he was Officer-in-Charge of the Bureau of External Relations at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Mr. Piper joined the United Nations in 1990 at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Bangkok.  Since then, he has served the Organization in various capacities, including as Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, and United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, from 2015 to 2018; United Nations Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, from 2013 to 2015; United Nations Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for Nepal, from 2008 to 2013; and for Kosovo between 2002 and 2004.  He has held a number of other key positions with UNDP at Headquarters and in the field, including as inaugural Director for the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund and as Deputy Director for Emergency Response.

Mr. Piper holds an honours degree in political science from the Australian National University and a certificate in French language and literature from the Sorbonne University.  He was selected in 2004 as a World Fellow at Yale University.

Born in 1966, he is married and has four children.

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*     This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1812-BIO/5097-DEV/3342 of 26 June 2018.