UN Foundation Welcomes Geeta Rao Gupta and Ameerah Haq in Key Advisory Roles

The United Nations Foundation today announced the appointment of Geeta Rao Gupta as Senior Fellow for Gender Equality and Ameerah Haq as Senior Adviser for UN Impact.

Kathy Calvin, President & CEO of the UN Foundation, said, “Geeta and Ameerah have been leaders and trailblazers in addressing some of the deepest challenges facing a turbulent world. They model the kind of leadership and integrity that exemplifies the UN at its best. Their experience and depth of knowledge will help guide the work of the UN Foundation in our mission to support the UN.”

Geeta Rao Gupta will advise the UN Foundation on issues of gender equality and girls’ and women’s empowerment. Gupta is an experienced researcher, passionate advocate and program expert on gender and development issues, with more than twenty years of experience leading and managing global organizations at different scales. Gupta was previously Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, where she served as a member of the senior executive team and oversaw UNICEF’s programs, emergency operations and supplies. Prior to that, Gupta was a senior fellow for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, following more than a decade as president of the International Center for Research on Women. At ICRW, Gupta conducted and guided research on diverse topics, ranging from the social and economic factors that affect women’s use of maternal nutrition and health care services to girls’ and women’s vulnerability to HIV – efforts that influenced global programmatic and policy change for girls and women.

Ameerah Haq will advise the UN Foundation on issues related to UN strengthening. Haq is a seasoned and skilled negotiator and consensus-builder who served the UN with distinction for four decades, taking on progressively senior management responsibilities in support of complex mission deployments and country transition activities. Haq most recently served as Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Field Support, a role she took on after serving as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Timor-Leste and Head of the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT). Haq has previously held the positions of Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General; United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan; and Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan. Following her retirement from UN service Haq served as vice chair of then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s High-Level Independent Panel on UN Peace Operations.

Gupta and Haq join an eminent group of senior fellows and advisers to the UN Foundation that includes:

·         Mohamed El-Ashry, former CEO and Chairman of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and recipient of several honors, who advises the Foundation on energy and climate issues

·         Alaka Basu, Professor at Cornell University and internationally recognized scholar and demographer, who advises the Foundation on reproductive health and gender

·         Mayra Buvinic, former President of the International Center for Research on Women and Director for Gender and Development at the World Bank and serving Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, who advises the Foundation on gender data and women’s economic empowerment

·         Reid Detchon, former Vice President at the UN Foundation with a distinguished track record in energy and environmental policy in the public and non-profit sectors, who advises the Foundation on climate solutions

·         Melinda L. Kimble, former Senior Vice President at the UN Foundation and U.S. senior foreign service officer with extensive multilateral development and environmental expertise, who advises the Foundation on global issues and the environment

·         John E. Lange, former U.S. Ambassador to Botswana known for his pioneering diplomacy on HIV/AIDS and pandemic influenza and his leadership on polio eradication, who advises the Foundation on global health diplomacy

·         Thomas Lovejoy, frequently called the “Godfather of Biodiversity,” U.S. Science Envoy, and recipient of multiple honors, who advises the Foundation on biodiversity and environmental science

·         John W. McArthur, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and member of the Board of Governors for the International Development Research Centre, who advises the Foundation on sustainable development.

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About the United Nations Foundation

The United Nations Foundation builds public-private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems, and broadens support for the United Nations through advocacy and public outreach. Through innovative campaigns and initiatives, the Foundation connects people, ideas, and resources to help the UN solve global problems. The Foundation was created in 1998 as a U.S. public charity by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner and now is supported by philanthropic, corporate, government, and individual donors. Learn more at: www.unfoundation.org.