Secretary-General Appoints Themba Kalua of Malawi United Nations Resident Coordinator in Samoa

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Themba Kalua of Malawi as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Samoa, with the host Government’s approval.

Based in Apia, Samoa, Mr. Kalua will head the Samoa Multi-Country Office, and also coordinate the United Nations development operations in Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau.  He took up his position on 5 August.

Mr. Kalua brings more than 20 years of experience in sustainable development, development coordination, strategic planning, environment and climate change, gender equality and women’s empowerment, and humanitarian action.

Prior to his appointment in Samoa, he served as the UN-Women Country Representative in Papua New Guinea, where he led efforts to address high levels of gender-based violence, promote women’s political participation and economic empowerment, and established and chaired the donor coordination mechanism for gender equality and women’s empowerment.  He also chaired the inter-agency core design team that led the drafting of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Papua New Guinea.

During the 2022 national general elections in Papua New Guinea, Mr. Kalua served as Resident Coordinator ad interim, successfully leading the United Nations’ coordinated engagement with the newly elected Government.

Before moving to Papua New Guinea, Mr. Kalua was the Senior Development Coordination Officer at the United Nations Development Coordination Office’s Regional Office for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  In this role, he supported the delivery of the United Nations development system reform in Africa and provided policy and advisory services to resident coordinators in 54 African countries, contributing to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Between 2013 and 2019, Mr. Kalua held various senior positions at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women).  These included Deputy Representative in the South Africa Multi-Country Office and liaison to the Southern African Development Community (SADC); Head of Programmes, Strategic Planning and Coordination Specialist for East and Southern Africa based at the regional office in Kenya; and United Nations System Coordination Adviser at UN-Women headquarters in New York.

Before joining UN-Women, Mr. Kalua worked with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Food Programme (WFP) on various sustainable development issues at the country, regional and headquarters levels.

Mr. Kalua holds an Executive MBA from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, a master’s degree in strategic management from the University of Derby in the United Kingdom and a Bachelor of Science in environmental science and technology from the University of Malawi.