New Permanent Observer of International Union for Conservation of Nature Presents Letter of Appointment

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

The new Permanent Observer for the International Union for Conservation of Nature to the United Nations, Sofie Sandström Jaffe, presented her letter of appointment to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

Prior to her appointment, Ms. Sandström Jaffe served as Senior Adviser on climate, environment and sustainable development at the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations in New York, representing both her country and the European Union in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial), beginning in 2019.

From 2017 to 2019, she was Senior Adviser on gender in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, as well as Assistant Ukraine Desk Officer, from 2016 to 2017.  Stationed in both Geneva and Nairobi, she was Project Officer at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), from 2013 to 2016.

Between 2011 and 2013, Ms. Sandström Jaffe was the Institutional Funding Officer at Trocaire, in Kenya, and the Development Programme Coordinator at the Gothenburg Initiative, in Somalia, from 2010 to 2011.  Prior to that, she was at Oxfam, where she served as the Regional Programme Funding Coordinator, stationed in Kenya, between 2006 and 2010, and as the Humanitarian Funding Coordinator, stationed in the United Kingdom, between 2005 and 2006.

Ms. Sandström Jaffe received her PhD in biological and environmental science from the University of Helsinki in 2022.  She also holds a Master of Science in environmental management from the University of London (2019) and a Master of Science in social sciences from the University of Helsinki (2005).