Secretary-General Appoints Ian Martin of United Kingdom as Head, Strategic Assessment, UN Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees

The Secretary-General announced today the appointment of Ian Martin of the United Kingdom as Head of the Strategic Assessment, as part of his UN80 initiative, of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The Secretary-General is tasking Mr. Martin with conducting the Strategic Assessment in order to review UNRWA’s impact; implementation of its mandate under present political, financial, security and other constraints; and consequences and risks for Palestine refugees. He has further been tasked with identifying options for action, by Member States and/or the United Nations, and considering overall United Nations mandates provided by the General Assembly and the Security Council.

Mr. Martin has had a distinguished service within the United Nations.  He was involved in a number of strategic reviews, most recently as the lead of the Independent Strategic Review of the United Nations Mission in Somalia and before then as a member of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations. Mr. Martin served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and in various positions in other UN field operations, including in Timor-Leste, Nepal, Eritrea, Rwanda and Haiti.

Mr. Martin holds a Master of Arts in history and economics from Cambridge University, United Kingdom, and studied development economics at Harvard University, United States.

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* This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1307-AFR/2247 of 19 September 2011.