Secretary-General Appoints Maria Jose Torres Macho of Spain United Nations Resident Coordinator in Chile

On 14 November, United Nations Secretary‑General António Guterres appointed Maria Jose Torres Macho of Spain as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Chile, with the host Government’s approval.

Ms. Torres Macho has more than 30 years of experience in law, sustainable development, humanitarian affairs, peacebuilding and development coordination, both at the United Nations and externally.  Within the Organization, she most recently served as Resident Coordinator in Malawi, after occupying other leadership positions at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), including head and deputy head of office in Colombia and Palestine respectively.

She also worked as a political officer with the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs in New York and in Somalia, and held managerial positions with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Colombia and Rwanda, as well as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Guatemala.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Ms. Torres Macho was Executive Director of the Fundación Instituto de Promoción y Apoyo al Desarrollo (IPADE), a Spanish non-governmental organization specializing in local development, and worked at the European Parliament.

She earned a master’s degree in international humanitarian law and human rights law from Essex University, in the United Kingdom; a master’s degree in international relations from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, in Belgium; a master’s degree in European studies from Pontificia University, in Spain; and a law degree from Cantabria University, also in Spain.