I Was There: voices of humanitarian leadership

Jan Eliasson was the first Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in the UN in the early 1990s. In 2012, Eliasson was appointed as the Deputy Secretary-General of the UN by the then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He also served as a diplomat for the Swedish Government, including as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to the UN. In this episode, Ja...

David Bassiouni was the first person to perform the role of a Humanitarian Coordinator for the UN in the early 1990s. He also held several senior positions with the UN, including as Deputy Director for UNICEF’s Office for Emergency Programmes. Prior to his career in the UN, Bassiouni served in senior government positions, including Regional Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Sudan. I...

Jan Egeland was the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from 2003 to 2006. He has also served in various high-level positions in the UN, including as a Special Advisor to Colombia and other advisory and leadership roles on the Syria crisis. Egeland's career also includes service to the Government of Norway as State Secretary in the Ministry of Forei...

Baroness Valerie Amos served as the UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (USG/ERC) from 2010 to 2015. She held various senior level positions with the British Government, including as High Commissioner to Australia and Secretary of State for International Development. In 2021, Baroness Amos was appointed as Master of University College, Oxford. In th...

John Holmes served as the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (USG/ERC) from 2007 to 2011. Prior to joining the UN, Holmes had a long career as a British diplomat in several missions, having also held a number of high-level posts with the British Government. In this episode, John Holmes explains how he navigated the delicate world of politics during...

Margareta Wahlström is a Swedish diplomat who has held various leadership positions in the Red Cross, including as the Under Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the President of the Swedish Red Cross. She also has held leadership posts with the UN, including as the first Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Redu...

Antonio Donini is a veteran humanitarian worker, having served in leadership positions in the United Nations, including as the head of UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) and as Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan. He has also served as the Chief of the Lessons Learned Unit at OCHA, where he managed a programme of independent studies on the effectiveness o...

Mark Bowden has over 40 years of experience, leading UN’s humanitarian response in some of the world’s most complex and protracted crises, such as Afghanistan and Somalia. He also held various leadership positions in the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) and Save the Children, both in headquarters and country offices. Bowden has also had a career with the UK Foreig...

Martin Barber has worked in some of the world’s most challenging humanitarian crises, leading emergency operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Honduras, Laos, Thailand and many more. He also served as Director of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and held various positions with the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA). In this episode, Martin Barber takes us...

Ross Mountain is a humanitarian veteran having worked with the UN across multiple countries and leading some of world’s most complex emergencies over the years. He has held leadership positions in the UN, both in headquarters and country operations, including in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Liberia, Haiti, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and many more. In this episode, Ross Mountain takes us b...

Ameerah Haq is a former UN Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Field Support, having also served as the Vice-Chair of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations for the UN. Ameerah Haq also served as the last Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste and held various leadership level positions in Afghanistan, Malaysia, Laos and...

Elisabeth Rasmusson is a former Secretary-General of Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). She also held various leadership positions with the UN, including as the first ever female Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) in the system. Rasmusson’s career also took her to various other operations, including in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Uganda and more. She also had a key role in establishing the Internal...

Matthew Kahane is a senior humanitarian and development professional. He has held various leadership positions with the UN, including as the Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nepal and Tajikistan, having also led UN’s development operations in Belarus, Poland and Samoa. In this episode, Matthew Kahane goes through the intricacies of his time in Nepal, after the massacre of the r...

Charles Petrie has held various leadership level positions in the United Nations in headquarters and country operations, including in Burundi, Myanmar, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and many more. Petrie was also designated by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to lead an internal review of the UN’s actions in Sri Lanka during the last phase of the conflict, which subsequently led to the Secretary-Gene...

Kevin Kennedy is a seasoned humanitarian veteran who led UN’s operations in some of world’s most complex crises, including in the Balkans, East Timor, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and many more. He also held positions with UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) both in headquarters and in various country operations. He was also the first deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia...

Marta Ruedas has served as the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), having also worked for almost 30 years coordinating UN’s development and humanitarian work in conflict and post-conflict countries. Ruedas started her career in the early 1990s with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In this episode, Marta Ruedas walks...

Jamie McGoldrick is a season humanitarian veteran, having served in various UN humanitarian leadership positions across multiple countries, including Georgia, Nepal, the occupied Palestinian territory, Yemen and many more. McGoldrick also has an extensive career with UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), holding various positions in both headquarters and country operatio...

Randolph Kent started his humanitarian career as the Chief of Emergency Prevention and Preparedness in Ethiopia in the late 1980s. He led the UN’s humanitarian response in Rwanda during the genocide in 1994. He also held multiple UN leadership positions, including in Kosovo, Somalia and Sudan. In this episode, Randolph Kent takes us back to early 1990s and UN’s humanitarian response in Rwanda foll...

Jemilah Mahmood is the founder of Mercy Malaysia, a southern medical humanitarian NGO currently working across the world. She is the former Under-Secretary-General for Partnerships at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Mahmood was also the Chief of the World Humanitarian Summit, held in 2016. Her previous appointments also include Special Advisor to the forme...

Max Gaylard was an Australian diplomat who served as the High Commissioner to the Solomon Islands and as Director of International Relations of the Commonwealth Secretariat. Gaylard started working with the UN as a Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, during the Oil for Food Programme. He has also served in UN leadership positions in the occupied Palestinian territory, Somalia, Sudan and more. Gaylar...

Sara Nyanti joined the UN during the conflict and transitional governments period in Liberia, after holding senior positions in the country’s Ministry of Health. She started her UN career as a national of her own country and completed it having served in leadership positions in multiple countries, including in South Sudan. In 2024, Nyanti was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Liberia...