Our Team in Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu

Alrina brings over 10 years of experience working in management, marketing, communications, and international relations in the Pacific. Before this, she worked with UNDP Pacific on the Public Finance Management Project as the Project Activity Manager.
Alrina holds a bachelor's degree in Management and Public Administration and Information Systems, and postgraduate qualifications in human resource management and international affairs, and diplomacy. She is passionate about contributing to meaningful change in our region and beyond.

With over 20 years of experience in international development cooperation within the United Nations System, Mr. Dirk Wagener has held diverse leadership roles spanning sustainable development, peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance, and environmental protection. His expertise extends from serving as UNDP Resident Representative in Papua New Guinea to chairing intergovernmental negotiations on the Bougainville Peace Process as acting UN Resident Coordinator and leading UNEP’s global efforts on Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Consumption and Production.

Prior to his UN tenure, Mr. Wagener contributed to development efforts in India and Germany. He holds a master's degree in International Agricultural Sciences and a bachelor's degree in Agronomy from the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.

Alison has worked extensively in humanitarian and crisis settings, including over five years in Afghanistan, where she served as the Special Representative for UN Women and, earlier, as Deputy Country Representative.
She has also held regional and global roles with UN Women, contributing to policy and programming on peace and security, access to justice, and inclusive governance across Asia and the Pacific. At the UN Women Headquarters, she worked on transitional justice and spearheaded the development of the portfolio on preventing violent extremism.

Earlier in her career, Alison worked with organizations including the International Center for Transitional Justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo, UNDP in Somalia, and the Refugee Advice and Casework Service in Australia. She holds a BA in Government and an LLB from the University of Sydney, and an LLM from Harvard University.

Alpha Bah is WFP’s Country Director for the Pacific Multi-Country Office based in Suva, Fiji. In the Pacific, WFP works towards improving the capacity of Pacific Island Countries and Territories to reduce risk of, prepare for, and respond to disasters with a view of building a more resilient Pacific Community. Since joining WFP in 2000, he has been stationed in several countries including North Korea, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Italy, Senegal, Kenya, UAE, and Bangladesh, responding to and supporting several high-profile emergency missions around the world.

Prior to joining WFP, Alpha worked for UNDP and for the private sector as a network engineer. Prior to his assignment in the Pacific, Alpha was the Deputy Country Director for WFP in Bangladesh with overall responsibility for operations and support services for WFP’s development and humanitarian assistance programs. He had also previously served as WFP’s Chief of IT Emergency Preparedness and Response, responsible for managing WFP’s IT emergency team and leadership of the global Emergency Telecommunication Cluster (ETC).

Alpha is married and has four children. He and his wife are from Sierra Leone. He holds a master’s degree in Management and Information Systems, and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering with honors, and a Certified Network Engineer. He is a dedicated humanitarian and proud husband and father.

Ms. Andie Fong Toy is the Head of the ESCAP Subregional Office for the Pacific in Suva, Fiji. Ms. Fong Toy brings over thirty years of experience in the Pacific. She previously served as Legal and Political Advisor, International Legal Advisor and Director, Political and Security Programme at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat before being appointed as its Deputy Secretary-General. In this capacity, she oversaw political and security, economic governance, and trade policy issues, including economic integration and reform in the Pacific.

In her more recent capacity as Labour Mobility Advisor for the Australian Pacific Training Coalition, Ms. Fong Toy provided strategic advice to countries of the Pacific on ways to optimize labour mobility and produce the best employment outcomes.

Ms. Fong Toy holds a master’s degree in international relations from Deakin University and a bachelor’s degree in law from Victoria University of Wellington.

Bernhard Barth joined UN-Habitat in 2006 and oversees UN-Habitat’s Pacific Programme since 2013 after moving to the Regional Office in Japan from UN-Habitat’s Headquarters in Nairobi. Bernhard also oversees two other country programmes in the Asia Pacific Region and UN-Habitat’s climate change programme.

Prior to joining UN-Habitat, he worked for ESCAP in Bangkok and various NGOs in Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and the UK and his native Germany. Bernhard holds Master’s degrees in Economics and in Environmental Policy.

With over 30 years of leadership and expertise in advocacy, strategic partnerships, programme management, and policy influence, Bidisha brings a wealth of experience to this role. Prior to this appointment, she served as the UNFPA Representative in Liberia, where she played a pivotal role in advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality, and youth empowerment.
Before joining UNFPA, Bidisha held several senior leadership positions, including Global Policy, Advocacy, and Campaigns Director at Save the Children International, where she led global advocacy initiatives. She also served as the Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children India, overseeing a team of 400 professionals and managing large-scale development programs across the country. Earlier in her career, she worked with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in India, UNODC, and various civil society organizations, focusing on child rights, gender equity, and public health.
Bidisha holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from Annamalai University and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Calcutta University. She is fluent in English, Hindi, and Bengali.

Mr. Candra Samekto currently holds position as the Country Director and Representative for IFAD Pacific office, based in Suva Fiji. He manages IFAD Pacific portfolio across 13 Pacific Island Countries. Prior to this position, he was the Country Director for Afghanistan based in IFAD East Asia Sub-Regional Hub in Beijing, China. Mr. Samekto brings over 20 years of experiences in multi-sector development both in public and private sector organizations including IWC, BAPPENAS, UNESCAP, OXFAM, SIWI and Department of Environment and Resources Management of Queensland Government.

Mr Samekto holds PhD degree in Natural Resources Management and Policy from the University of Queensland, Australia, and Master of Science in Water Service Management from UNESCO-IHE Delft, the Netherlands. He has specialized knowledge in programme and portfolio management, natural resources management, public policy, as well as infrastructure development and financing. He also has strong technical background and experience in the design and implementation of investment programmes.

Mr. Cardona has more than 26 years of experience in strategic communications, crisis communications, outreach and campaigns within the United Nations system. Before his appointment to Canberra, he served as United Nations Information Centre Director in Dakar, Senegal (covering French-speaking Africa) and in Bogota (covering Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela). In 2021, he was seconded to the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia as Chief of Strategic Communications and Public Information.

Having served in peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mali and Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr. Cardona was also Chief of Media Relations and Spokesperson for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and Special Adviser to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General.

Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Cardona was based in Amman, Jordan, from 1998 to 2002 as Regional Middle East Communications Delegate for the International Federation
of the Red Cross (IFRC). He had been the Director of International Relations for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-sponsored Universal Forum of
Cultures Barcelona 2004.

Mr. Cardona holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Barcelona and master’s degree on international relations from the Institut d’Études Politiques in
Grenoble, France.

He is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Catalan, and has a good working knowledge of Haitian Creole, Italian and Portuguese.

Dr Howard L Sobel is an internist, pediatrician and preventive medicine physician. He is currently the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative for Solomon Islands.

Dr Sobel’s work has taken him around the world, including WHO Headquarters (Switzerland, HIV), China (SARS), Guyana (immunization), Ghana (immunization), Philippines and Cambodia (maternal and child health, immunization and nutrition). Most recently, he was Coordinator for Maternal and Child Health, Quality and Safety, Safe and Affordable Surgery, Infection Prevention and Control at the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific. He was deployed to Lao People’s Democratic Republic as acting Head of Office during the COVID-19 response in 2020.

Dr Sobel focuses on operationalizing and scaling up evidence-based programs that save lives across the lifespan in low and middle-income countries. He has more than 50 internationally peer-reviewed publications and 20 WHO publications and has been part of editorial review boards and conducted manuscript reviews for many journals. Dr. Sobel gained his undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech in Engineering, a Master of Science in Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, Medical Doctorate at Medical College of Virginia, Master of Public Health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (where he was Chief Resident and instructor), and a PhD at Ghent University, Belgium.

Dr Mark Jacobs is the Director of Pacific Technical Support and WHO Representative to the South Pacific. He was appointed in this position in August 2021. Prior to this, he has held a series of senior public health leadership roles.

Dr Jacobs was previously the WHO Representative to Lao People’s Democratic Republic from November 2018 to August 2021. From May to October 2018, Dr Jacobs was Acting Director of Programme Management for WHO in the Western Pacific Region. He was also previously the Director of Communicable Diseases in the Region for 5 years.

Before joining WHO, he was New Zealand’s Director of Public Health for 9 years and managed the Public Health Programme at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community for 3 years. He also spent several years in Director of Public Health roles for state health authorities in Australia.

Dr Jacobs’ interests include developing healthy public policy, strengthening disease surveillance, strengthening all hazards emergency preparedness, and working across sectors to improve health. He holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, a Graduate Diploma in Health Services Management and a Master of Public Health

As Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific, Eamonn Murphy supports countries across the region in achieving the goals outlined in the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS.

He leads and facilitates a joint United Nations response to support countries and their HIV programmes, which includes strengthening the links between governments, civil society, the United Nations system and development partners.

Mr Murphy was previously the UNAIDS Country Director in Myanmar, where he supported Myanmar’s significant scale-up of services and helped to create an enabling environment and overcome legislative obstacles. Prior to that, he served in Viet Nam as UNAIDS Country Director, where he was honoured with the Order of Friendship by the President in 2010, UNAIDS headquarters as Director of Governance, United Nations System and Donor Relations, and as the UNAIDS Country Coordinator in Myanmar.

Before joining the United Nations, Mr Murphy held a number of senior positions with the Australian Government, including Director for Health Sectors with AusAID in the Foreign Ministry, as well as Assistant Secretary for Communicable Diseases and Environmental Health and Director of the National AIDS Programme for the Commonwealth Health Department.

Mr Murphy has a Masters of Health (Merit) from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Education from the Australian Catholic University.

Ms Gabrielle (Gabby) Emery, a citizen of Aotearoa New Zealand, was appointed to the position of UNDRR Head of Pacific Subregional Office in January 2022 and is based in Suva, Fiji. As the UNDRR Pacific Representative, she oversees UNDRR support to Pacific Island countries and regional organisations.

Prior to this current appointment, Gabby was the head of the disaster law programme with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent in Asia Pacific. She brings extensive experience working with governments, partners and local actors to develop, revise and support implementation of climate, disaster and humanitarian laws and policies in the region, including many countries in the Pacific.

Gabby has also served as the policy and advocacy manager for New Zealand Red Cross, working on issues of international humanitarian law and refugee services in New Zealand. She was also humanitarian and development advisor for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs based out of New York. Gabby holds a master’s in international human rights law, and undergraduate degrees in Law and Arts. She is married with three children, and several adopted street dogs.

Mr. QU joined FAO headquarters in 2019 as Special Adviser to the Director-General and was subsequently appointed Deputy Directeur de Cabinet in the Office of the Director-General.

Prior to joining FAO, he served consecutively as Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Bangladesh and in New Zealand, 2013-2019. From December 2020, he has been serving as Director, FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in New York (LON). He was appointed by the Director General as FAO Subregional Coordinator for the Pacific Countries in February 2025.

Mr. QU started his career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China, and held increasingly senior positions on Arms Control and Non-Proliferation at home and abroad. He was posted in The Hague, Netherlands, and in Vienna, Austria, then served as Director of the Department of Arms Control and Disarmament, Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Mr QU holds a Master of Arts in World History from Nankai University, and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Anhui Normal University in China. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California, United States.

Heike Alefsen has almost 30 years of human rights, legal, political and development work experience with the United Nations, the Council of Europe and civil society. Until 2020, she was Senior Human Rights Adviser to the UN Country Team in Bangladesh and to the UN Development Group Asia-Pacific in Bangkok.

As Deputy Head of the OHCHR Regional Office for South-East Asia, she established a country programme for Myanmar and coordinated policy and information of the Human Rights Council’s special procedures at OHCHR Geneva. She also served with the UN Division for the Advancement of Women and the UN Development Fund for Women in New York, as Council of Europe Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and with Amnesty International’s Legal Office in London.

Jayvee is the Regional Coordinator for the Pacific for ASYCUDA, the largest UNCTAD technical cooperation programme. He has 20+ years experience in customs automation and modernization working in 20 country projects in Asia-Pacific. Jayvee’s office currently supports 12 Pacific countries and territory.

Mr. Jinhua Zhang, a national of China, has extensive experience in UNEP particularly in the Asia-Pacific region where he has worked for the last 19 years. Prior to this role, Mr. Zhang was Regional Sub-programme Coordinator, responsible for the implementation and delivery of the UNEP Science-Policy foundational programme in Asia and the Pacific. With an educational background in land resources inventory and quantitative land evaluation, Mr. Zhang has been working on integrated environmental assessment, environmental indicators, data and information management, and building partnership.

With this new role, Mr. Zhang coordinates UNEP work in the Pacific region, covering: Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu & Vanuatu.

Mr. Jonathan Veitch, a citizen of the United Kingdom, was appointed to the position of UNICEF Pacific Representative in August 2021 and is based in Suva, Fiji. As the UNICEF Pacific Representative, he oversees UNICEF’s programmes and operations in Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Prior to this current appointment, Mr. Veitch was the Deputy Director of the Private Fundraising and Partnerships Division at UNICEF, based in Geneva, responsible for the relationship with UNICEF’s 33 National Committees. He brings with him extensive experience working on children’s issues at the country and global level, especially in dealing with complex emergencies, peacebuilding and maternal and child health.

Mr. Veitch served as the UNICEF Representative in South Sudan from 2014 to 2016, and in Kyrgyzstan between 2010 to 2014. Prior to that Mr. Veitch was a Senior Programme Officer at the World Health Organisation in Geneva, responsible for liaison between the two organisations, especially in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Mr. Veitch was the Senior Programme Officer for UNICEF in Sudan, and he also spent several years working in Somalia as the UNICEF head of Central and Southern zones. He has worked for the UN and NGOs in several other countries in Africa and Asia.

Mr. Veitch holds a Master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He is married with three children and is currently in Fiji with his family.

Karen Gulick is the Acting Regional Representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific.

A lawyer by training, Ms. Gulick has served with UNHCR, OHCHR and OCHA in refugee situations and situations of internal displacement in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Most recently, she led the policy team in UNHCR’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, focusing on the Afghanistan Situation. She began work in the United Nations as Senior Legal Advisor to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, Walter Kaelin.

At headquarters, she has served as UNHCR’s Chief of Governance and Chief of Protection Operational Support and worked on the development and early implementation of the Global Compact for Refugees.

Before joining the UN, she was a lawyer in the US government and a partner at Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis, with expertise in international telecommunications, disabilities law and administrative procedure. Her experience as a war crimes investigator in Darfur for the UN Security Council in 2004 encouraged a career change toward humanitarian work.

Ms. Gulick has a JD from Yale Law School, a BA (History) from Stanford University, and an LLM in international humanitarian law from the University of Geneva.

Ms. Marie Pegie Cauchois has worked for the UN since 2012, first in UN Peace Keeping operations in South Sudan, Afghanistan, Central African Republic and Somalia, she then joined UNODC in 2017 and worked in Myanmar as Anti-Corruption Programme manager. She is now Regional Anti-Corruption Adviser and manages the Anti-Corruption Project in 14 Pacific Island countries. Before joining the UN, Ms. Pegie Cauchois worked in Vanuatu with AusAid/Australian Federal Police project, Transparency International and the Vanuatu Prime Minister’s Office.

Mark Beeby of the United Kingdom has over 15 years’ experience within the United Nations Security Management System. Prior to being appointed to Fiji in February 2024, he was UNHCR’s Senior Field Security Officer, supporting operations in the Central African Republic for three and a half years. Before that, from 2014 onwards, he supported UNHCR operations in Chad, Somalia, the DRC, Mali, and Kenya. This was preceded by supporting IOM operations in the Central African Republic and Mali, International Criminal Court operations in the DRC and Chad, and a UN political mission in the Central African Republic.

He also supported the security of an international non-governmental organisation in a regional capacity in Africa, with short-term missions to support Afghanistan and Haiti. Prior to this, he worked in the private sector, supporting a reconstruction project in Iraq and ensuring the personal security of high-net-worth individuals in Europe.

Mark served for seven years in the French military within the French Foreign Legion, where he participated in peacekeeping operations in ex-Yugoslavia as well as support missions in Africa, while also being assigned to South America and French Guiana for two years.

Mark obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Security and Risk Management from Leicester University and a Certificate in Business Studies from the Open University, both in the United Kingdom. Mark is fluent in English and French.

Martin Wandera is the Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Office for Pacific Island Countries (PICs), based in Suva, Fiji. Mr Wandera debuted his career with the ILO in March 2024 with the posting in the ILO Office for PICs.

He is responsible for supporting 11 ILO member States (Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, Tonga, and Cook Islands). In addition, the Office also provides technical support to non-member Pacific Island States.

Across the Pacific Islands Countries, Mr Wandera oversees a wide range of work including promoting international labour standards and social dialogue, employment creation and skills development, rural and labour-intensive infrastructure development, national employment policy, youth employment initiatives, elimination of child labour and forced labour, gender equality, labour law reform, labour migration and mobility, and social protection.

Mr. Wandera, hailing from Uganda, boasts of over two decades of profound expertise in the fields of labour, employment and public administration. Before assuming his current role in Fiji, he dedicated nearly a decade to serving as the Director of Labour, Employment, and Occupational Safety and Health at the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development in Uganda. Preceding this position, he held the role of Director at the Centre for Labour Research and Studies in Uganda. Mr Wandera also served as a Member of the Ugandan Parliament.

Mr Wandera holds a Master of Science in Applied Labour Economics for Development University of Turin (Italy), Executive Master of Applied Labour Economics, Sciences Politiques Paris (France) and a Masters of Economic Development (Social Economy and Labour Concentration) from State University of Campinas, Sao Paulo (Brazil). He also holds a Bachelor of Arts (Economics and Political Science) of Makerere University, Kampala (Uganda).

Martin Wandera is married to Martha and they have four children.

Ms. Olga Prorovskaya is the Head of OCHA Office of the Pacific Islands in Suva, Fiji. Olga joins the OCHA Pacific team from OCHA Syria, where she was Head of Humanitarian Financing Unit, managing one of the largest country-based pooled funds globally and leading the donor relations and resource mobilization portfolio.

She brings a wealth of experience, with over 20 years working in complex emergencies, conflict and natural disasters contexts, 17 years working with the United Nations (IOM in Afghanistan, DPKO in Sudan, DPA in Iraq and DCO in DPR Korea) and the last 11 years with OCHA.

Olga has extensive knowledge in strategic and operational coordination, analysis of humanitarian contexts and emergency response preparedness. Her progressive leadership experience in complex emergencies and disasters in OCHA has included working as Deputy Head of Office for Central Asia and South Caucasus, Head of Humanitarian Financing Unit in Iraq, Deputy INSARAG Global Lead in Geneva (HQ), Head of Humanitarian Advisory Team in DPR Korea, Head of Liaison Office in Russia and Head of Humanitarian Financing Unit in Syria. Olga is an UNDAC (United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination team) member since 2014 and her most recent UNDAC deployment as Deputy UNDAC Team Leader was to Lattakia, Syria in February 2023 to coordinate earthquake response efforts.

Prior to joining the United Nations, she worked with NGOs, Red Cross, ECHO and the UK Government. Educated in Russia, Iran and the United States, Olga holds a Master’s degree in Oriental and African Studies from the Moscow State University in Russia and a Diploma in International Humanitarian Assistance from Fordham University in USA. She is a national of the Russian Federation; in addition to her native Russian, she is fluent in English and has a good command of Dari, Farsi and Tajik.

Renata Ram is the UNAIDS Pacific Adviser, leading the HIV response in Fiji and across the Pacific through high-level policy advocacy, strategic coordination, and technical guidance. She works closely with governments, development partners, civil society, and UN agencies to drive community-led, data-informed, and equity-focused HIV programming.

Renata brings over 15 years of experience in international development, government, and public health policy. Before joining UNAIDS, she held leadership roles in the Fijian Government and regional organizations, contributing to national and regional strategies on health, gender, and social development. She played a central role in revitalizing Fiji’s national HIV governance, designing the current HIV outbreak response, and mobilizing multisectoral partnerships to address structural barriers.

Renata holds a Master’s in Health Policy from the University of Sydney with other postgraduate qualifications in Development, Public Health, and Health Sciences Management. A proud Pacific Islander, she is passionate about decolonizing global health and championing resilient, locally driven solutions.