Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres appointed Hanaa Singer-Hamdy of Egypt as United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nepal. She assumed the position on January 1st after the approval of the government.
Ms. Singer-Hamdy has nearly 30 years of experience in development and humanitarian fields within various senior management and strategic leadership roles.
She introduced multiple programs for enhancing sanitation, adolescents, and multisectoral nutrition programs, establishing strategic new alliances resulting in the government adopting national action plans within her work as UNICEF Chief in Nepal. She has additionally led humanitarian programs in Burundi and Haiti.
And as a Regional Emergency Advisor for central and eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), she set up cross-border humanitarian operations to Afghanistan, from central Asia, Iraq, and southern Turkey. She also provided technical support to emergency preparedness programs in the North Caucasus and Kyrgyzstan.
She previously served as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka from 2018 to 2022. Under her leadership, the UN in Sri Lanka continued its partnership with the government against complex economic and political challenges, including the 2019 Easter Bombings, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting deterioration in macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability.
During Sri Lanka’s food insecurity crisis, she initiated a response targeting 3.4 M people in need, raising over $100 M for vital aid to advance inclusive and rights-based development.
Moreover, she led the design of the United Nations Strategic Development Cooperation Framework 2023-2027 in consultation with the state’s government and further stakeholders. Since 2019, in addition to mobilizing over $36 M for peace building and resilience programming through the UN Sri Lanka SDG Multi-Partner Trust Fund.
On top of that, Ms. Singer-Hamdy took charge in one of the largest worldwide protection crises in Syria and successfully developed programs through an integrated package of high-impact interventions in health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, and child protection. Furthermore, she contributed to enhancing UNICEF’s work capacity to reach the most vulnerable children, including those in besieged and hard-to-reach areas.
Before this, she held several senior management positions in UNICEF offices worldwide, including as the Associate Regional Director in Geneva and as Country Representative for Syria, Nepal, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan.
It is worth mentioning that Ms. Singer-Hamdy has engaged in academia and research in political sociology and international relations at the American University of Cairo and the Sadat’s Academy for Management Sciences, Faculty of Political Science of Cairo University. She is the author and co-author of two publications on social change in the Middle East.
As for her Education achievement, she holds a Master’s degree in Political Sociology and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the American University in Cairo, Egypt. She obtained a diploma in Planning and Management of Decentralized Development Projects from Bradford University in the United Kingdom.
