New Permanent Representative of Democratic Republic of Congo Presents Credentials

(Based on information provided by the Protocol and Liaison Service)

The new Permanent Representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Nations, Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

Before his latest appointment, Mr. Nzongola-Ntalaja has been, since 2007, a professor in the Department of African, African American and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States.

He was concurrently interim Executive Director of the African Governance Institute in Dakar, Senegal, from 2009 to 2010, as well as Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) between 2005 and 2007, and Director of the Oslo Governance Centre from 2002 to 2005.

Mr. Nzongola-Ntalaja was seconded to the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region in 2005 to lead a team of experts tasked with developing a governance programme for the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region.

After living in exile abroad for 17 years, Mr. Nzongola-Ntalaja returned to his homeland — then known as Zaire — in 1991.  He participated in the Congolese Sovereign National Conference the following year as one of its seven “scholars of international renown”.

Mr. Nzongola-Ntalaja was diplomatic adviser to Prime Minister Etienne Tshisekedi from 1992 to 1993 and First Vice-President of the National Election Commission in 1996.

He holds a doctoral degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s degree in diplomacy and international commerce from the University of Kentucky and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Davidson College.  All three institutions are in the United States.