Our Team in Maldives

Mr. Zhang brings more than 27 years of professional experience to the role, including over 17 years with the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He joined ADB in January 2008 as a procurement specialist and held a series of positions of increasing responsibility, including Senior Advisor to the Vice President for South, Central and West Asia, Principal Urban Development Specialist in the Urban Development and Water Division (CWUW) , Deputy Country Director in China, OIC Director and Advisor in the East Asian Development Department, and Advisor to Director General of Portfolio Procurement and Financial Management Department.

Prior to joining ADB, he was a municipal engineer and project officer at the World Bank Resident Mission in Beijing from 2002 to 2008.

Mr. Zhang holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, and a university degree in civil and environmental engineering from Tongji University, China.

Dr. Edward Addai as the new Representative to the UNICEF Maldives Country Office.

Dr. Edward Addai was originally a public health physician, specialized in policy analysis, planning, monitoring and evaluation. He is a systems thinker and an expert in programme design and results-based management. He started his career over 30 years ago as a clinician and district medical officer in Ahafo Ano South, a small district in Ghana, and worked his way to become the Director of Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation in Ghana. Eddie is joining UNICEF Maldives from Addis Ababa where is currently the UNCEF Representative to the African Union and UNECA.

Prior to taking on that role, he was the Regional Chief of Programme Planning Monitoring and Evaluation in UNICEF ESARO, and before that he was the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation in the Global Fund and Technical Officer Planning, Programming, and Evaluation in the World Health Organisation Africa Region.

Adnan Cheema (United Kingdom) is an international development professional with over 30 years of leadership experience across crisis, post-conflict, and development settings in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. He currently serves as the Resident Representative for UNDP in the Republic of Maldives.

Prior to this role, Adnan was the Deputy Resident Representative for UNDP in Myanmar. He has held several senior positions within UNDP, including Head of Sub-Office in Hodeidah, Yemen; Programme Manager of the $1.5 billion Funding Facility for Stabilization (FFS) in Iraq; and Programme Manager for Recovery and Peacebuilding portfolios in Sudan.

Throughout his career, Adnan has led strategic initiatives in development, recovery, and peacebuilding, working closely with multilateral donors, national governments, civil society organizations, and the private sector. He also previously served as Country Director for an international NGO, managing large-scale programmes focused on integrated development and climate adaptation.

He holds an MSc in Development Administration and Planning from the University of Bristol and a BA (Hons) in Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

Areti Sianni is the UNHCR Chief of Mission for India and Maldives. Areti has over 30 years of experience in refugee protection across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia-Pacific, including emergency operations, where she has held key positions such as Assistant Representative (Protection) in UNHCR Yemen and Assistant Chief of Mission (Protection) in UNHCR Libya. From 2012-2014, she was seconded to the Bali Process Regional Support Office where she advised on protection sensitive responses to mixed movements of refugees and migrants including by sea. Before joining UNHCR in 2008, Areti worked as an independent consultant with foundations and international NGOs including the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, Amnesty International- International Secretariat and the Barrow Cadbury Trust.

With more than 20 years of experience in development and operations across several different regions and organizations, Mr. Callanan now serves as the Director of UNOPS Multi-Country Office, responsible for UNOPS operations in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Prior to this he served as Director of UNOPS New York office where he managed operations in 110 countries and represented UNOPS in the Executive Board. He has been responsible for planning and managing projects with up to 179,000 personnel, has worked for the private sector, United Nations and the military. With extensive experience in humanitarian, development and post-conflict settings, he has worked in Afghanistan, East Timor, Sudan, Iraq, China, UAE, State of Palestine, Denmark, USA, Nepal, Jordan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He has won UNOPS Executive Director’s award four times, graduated with Honors in Science from UNSW, and as a Sloan Fellow was granted an MBA from MIT Sloan Business School focused on Innovation and Global Leadership. For UNOPS he has been responsible for delivery or direct management of over $900m worth of projects across 5 continents.

Mr. Enrico Boninsegna started his assignment with UNODC in May 2020, supporting activities carried out in the field of preventing and countering terrorism and violent extremism in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Prior to his current position, Mr. Boninsegna worked for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe as a Monitoring Officer in Donetsk (Non-Government-Controlled Areas of Ukraine), and as a Human Rights Officer on Countering Terrorism in Warsaw (Poland). Additional professional experiences include working as an Associate Expert for UNODC’s Regional Office for Central Asia (2010-2012) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and as a defence Case Manager at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (2009-2010) in The Hague, Netherlands. Mr. Boninsegna holds a master’s degree in law from the University of Bologna (Italy) and a LL.M. from the University of Turin (Italy).

Chief of the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific of the United
Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).
Over 25 years of experience in international cooperation with the UN
and other international organizations at the headquarters and in the
field in the areas of sustainable development, disaster risk
management, humanitarian relief, and refugee, IDPs and human rights
protection.

Ms. Mikiko Tanaka is the Director and Head of ESCAP Subregional Office for South and South-West Asia Office, New Delhi effective 2 May 2022. Ms. Tanaka brings over twenty-five years of experience within the United Nations system. She most recently served as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Guyana and worked with UNDP in Guyana, Yemen, Timor-Leste, Pakistan, Benin, China, Lao PDR and New York. Prior to the UN, she worked for Care International in Thailand and the financial sector in Japan. Ms. Tanaka holds master’s degrees in public policy and management from the University of London and in rural development management from Khon Kaen University in Thailand, and a bachelor’s degree from the International Christian University in Japan.

Mr. Sargsyan, an Armenian national, joined the World Bank in 2000, bringing over two decades of diverse experience to the role. His career at the World Bank includes serving in various capacities, notably as Country Manager and Manager of Operations in Europe, Central Asia and East Asia, as well as Program Manager for Climate Finance and as Global Lead for Clean Energy. His most recent assignment was as Country Manager for Ukraine, based in Kyiv.

“I am looking forward to working closely with our partners and stakeholders in Maldives,” said Mr. Sargsyan. “My priority is to strengthen the World Bank’s robust partnership with the Maldivian government, to support the country in implementing its home-grown economic reforms, and to create the space for investments in people, climate and infrastructure that the Maldives needs to build a resilient economy.”

In his new role, Mr. Sargsyan will oversee a total portfolio of around $217 million and the implementation of the World Bank's Country Partnership Framework for Maldives, which aims to support the country's development priorities.

About World Bank in Maldives: The World Bank and Maldives share a strong partnership of over 45 years. The current World Bank program in Maldives includes 10 projects financed by the International Development Association (IDA), one regional project and one IDA guarantee operation for a total net commitment of $217 million. The projects are focused on renewable energy, competitiveness and growth, youth resilience and employability, digital development, urban development, solid waste management, COVID-19 response, fisheries, labor, health, education, and social protection. The World Bank also provides analytical support in macro fiscal monitoring, policies and analysis, financial sector, social protection, and poverty.

Ms. Simpson has 26 years of experience working on issues relating to gender equality and inclusion in the world of work, with over 20 years working internationally. Previously she was ILO’s Senior Specialist on gender equality and non-discrimination, covering East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Prior to that, she headed ILO’s Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Entrepreneurship Education programmes from Geneva. Joni was the OIC for the ILO Country Office in Kathmandu, Nepal in early 2023. She holds a Master's degree in Cultural anthropology and a Bachelor’s in Education. Before joining the ILO, she headed a Women’s Enterprise Center and social purpose enterprise in Canada. She has lived and worked in the Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.

Kristin Parco is presently the Chief of Mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, United Nations (UN) Migration Agency and holds a master’s degree in development management. She has more than 24 years of experience in migration, health, humanitarian & development work in Haiti, Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia and Cambodia. Ms. Parco is from the Philippines, and she started her career in Cambodia in 1998 working with various INGO’s and since 2000 has worked with IOM on migration programs focusing on labor and human development, counter trafficking, migration and development, migration governance, migration health and immigration and border management and emergency and post crisis. She was the Chief of Mission of IOM Cambodia prior to being posted to Sri Lanka. During this period, Ms. Parco served as the UN Resident Coordinator a.i in Cambodia on numerous occasions. She works with UN, NGOs, CSO’s, academia, private sectors and government to maximize the potential of migration to achieve sustainable development outcomes for migrants and societies leading to supporting a whole society and whole government approach in achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2030.

Payden brings over 30 years of valuable public health experience to this role. Her extensive background includes 13 years with the Ministry of Health, 11 years as the Regional Advisor for Water, Sanitation and Climate Change and Health at the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, and 7 years as the Deputy WHO Representative to India. Notably, she spearheaded the climate change and health initiatives within the WHO South-East Asia Region, providing crucial support to Member States in capacity building, developing national action plans, and organizing Ministerial meetings focused on enhancing health systems' resilience to climate change.
During her tenure as Deputy WHO Representative to India, she played a pivotal role in accelerating efforts to eliminate Visceral Leishmaniasis, Lymphatic Filariasis, Tuberculosis, Measles and Rubella, and Leprosy in India.
Throughout her distinguished career, Ms. Payden has demonstrated a remarkable ability to mobilize significant funds from diverse donors to advance critical work in areas such as drinking water safety, climate change and health, neglected tropical diseases, and the COVID-19 response.
Her commitment to humanitarian action is evident through her deployments as part of WHO's emergency response efforts during the Nargis cyclone in Myanmar (2008), the Nepal earthquake (2015), and in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh (2017/18).

Ms. Shadiya Ibrahim is the Head of Office at UNFPA in Maldives since 2020. She leads the country team in the development and management of the UNFPA country programme of cooperation which supports efforts to achieve UNFPA’s transformative results contributing to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. She has been in UNFPA in various portfolios since January 1997 with over 20 years of experience. She has a Masters in Social Change and Development, a Post Graduate Diploma in Social Science Research and Bachelors (hons) in Computing and Mathematics.

Ms Sherina Tabassum is a Country Director in the Asia and the Pacific Division in IFAD and leads the management of the Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka portfolios since March 2021. She is a policy and rural development specialist and leads the work on partnership building with the Government, development partners and civil society, and the work on knowledge management and communication in the countries. Prior to joining IFAD in 2017, Ms Tabassum served as the Governance Advisor in the United States Agency for International Development for nine years. She also worked as a project director at the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, a private sector development think tank. In addition to Bangladesh and Maldives, Ms Tabassum has worked in Timor-Leste and Thailand. Ms Tabassum received her education in Bangladesh and Thailand in international relations, management and climate change.

Tim Curtis is the Director and UNESCO Representative, UNESCO New Delhi Regional Office covering Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Prior to this appointment he served since January 2016 as the Secretary of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, overseeing both the statutory and operational dimensions of UNESCO’s global programme for Living Heritage. He has been working in the field of culture and sustainable development in diverse international contexts for over twenty-five years, of which twenty have been with UNESCO. He served as a UNESCO programme specialist for Culture in East Africa as well as in South East Asia from 2004 until 2016. Prior to his work with UNESCO he was involved in advocacy and academic work, and received a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University, for which he did extensive ethnographic research among the Na’hai speakers of Malakula, Republic of Vanuatu.

Vimlendra Sharan is the FAO Representative for Sri Lanka and Maldives since June 2021. He previously served as the Director of the FAO Liaison Office for North America and brings with him three decades of national and international Government leadership experience focusing on rural development, agriculture, and food security issues. Prior to his role in Washington, he also served as Permanent Representative of India to the Rome based UN Agencies and filled positions of the Vice President of the World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Board, Chairman of the Evaluation Committee at International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Asia Group Representative on FAO Programme Committee, and a member of the FAO Council as well. Vimlendra has further worked with the Indian Government extensively in related areas. He holds a degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College in New Delhi, India and an MBA in Public Policy from University of Birmingham, UK.