United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Mr. Mohamed M. Malick Fall of Senegal as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, with the host Government’s approval.
The appointment was contained in a statement released in Abuja by Dr. Oluseyi Soremekun, National Information Officer of the United Nations Information Centre in Nigeria.
Mr. Fall takes over from Mr. Matthias Schmale who represented the UN Secretary General in coordinating the work of the UN Country Team as well as the Humanitarian Country Team in Nigeria from December 2021 to January 2024 and has now been deployed to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as Senior Advisor in the United Nations Development Coordination Regional Office in Africa.
The new UN Coordinator has more than 20 years’ experience in development, humanitarian services and peace-building. Prior to his appointment, he served as the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, where he provided oversight and guidance to 21 UNICEF Country Offices, including on the formulation and implementation of Country Programme Documents, UN Reform process, and engagement with the Regional and Economic Commissions, African Union and the private sector.
He has also led the response to multiple and complex crises with massive humanitarian needs and high security challenges, and managed the strategic review of country documents, research and knowledge-management related activities, ensuring that the results are used to inform programme and policies.
Before that, he served as UNICEF representative in Nigeria (2016-2019), Central African Republic (2014-2016) and Mongolia (2012-2014), as their Senior Education Adviser in Haiti (2010-2012), and as Chief of Education in Indonesia (2006-2010) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (2003-2006). He was also temporarily assigned as Education Officer (2001-2003).
Mr. Fall has a master’s degree in Demography from Université de Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne – France, and a B.A. Degree in History (Licence d’Histoire) from Université de Dakar – Sénégal.
The UN Resident Coordinator system is focused on the advancement of sustainable development and Resident Coordinators are at the heart of the transformation of the United Nations development coordination function. They are the designated representatives of the Secretary-General for development at the country level. Resident Coordinators are the cornerstone of a coherent and well-coordinated United Nations development system capable of delivering integrated support across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a holistic agenda which calls for joint collaboration between agencies, funds and programmes for the achievement of national development priorities.
The United Nations Country Team (UNCT) exists in 130 countries, covering all of the 162 countries where there are United Nations programmes. The UNCT includes all the UN entities working on sustainable development, emergency, recovery and transition in programme countries.
UNCT is led by the UN Resident Coordinator, as the representative of the UN Secretary-General in a given country and the team ensures inter-agency coordination and decision-making at the country level. The goal is to plan and work together, as part of the Resident Coordinator system, to ensure the delivery of tangible results in support of the development agenda of the Government, including the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, which guides the UN country team’s development programme cycle, in joint agreement with the host government.
It is well known that the Resident Coordinator is the highest ranking representative of the United Nations development system at the country level, with the responsibility to lead United Nations country teams, and ensure system-wide accountability on the ground for the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework and coordinating UN support to countries in their implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The RC brings to the role an appreciation of the breadth of assets of the United Nations in the service of sustaining peace and reports to the UN Secretary-General.
The Resident Coordinator system ensures the coordination of all organizations of the United Nations dealing with operational activities for development at the country level, regardless of the nature of their presence in the country. It encompasses the UN Resident Coordinator, the UN Country Team and Resident Coordinator’s Office and is served by the UN Development Coordination Office.
The Resident Coordinator system is focused on the advancement of sustainable development, leaving no one behind, and with the eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions as an overarching objective, consistent with the integrated nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
