New UN Res Rep presents credentials to government

BY PROSPER MAKENE

Foreign Affairs minister Bernard Membe (R) receives credentials of Alvaro Rodriguez (L), the new UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Representative in Tanzania at a colourful event held in Dsm.

The new UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Representative to Tanzania, Alvaro Rodriguez, officially presented his credentials to the government on Monday in Dar es Salaam.

Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Bernard Membe received the credentials. 

A UN statement issued said Alvaro Rodriguez assumed the post of UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in the United Republic of Tanzania on August 26, this year. 

Rodriguez has had a long career with the UN system starting his work with UNDP in Africa in 1991, it said. 

During the last ten years he has held senior posts in the UNDP headquarters, Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan, and has developed strong expertise in capacity development, electoral assistance, crisis prevention and recovery, risk management, environment and disaster management and humanitarian issues.

In his previous capacity as a Senior Country Director in Afghanistan, he was responsible for programmatic and operational activities in UNDP’s largest programme in the world. 

This included support for One UN initiatives, including support for the new UNDAF, the recent election process and extensive collaboration with UNAMA, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. 

He repositioned UNDP through a major change management process to enhance oversight, risk management and to address conflict sensitivity in UNDP programming. He was actively engaged in the US$500m a year Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan.

Prior to his posting in Afghanistan, Rodriguez served as Country Director, UNDP Somalia. On behalf of the UN Country Team, he led the formulation and implementation of one of the three pillars of the UN Somalia Assistance Strategy, dealing with governance and human security and was an active player in the Humanitarian Country team during the famine in 2011. 

While in the Somali programme he initiated a process of strengthening UNDP’s in-country presence in Somalia and in particular in Mogadishu. This included repositioning UNDP activities in the Integrated Strategic Framework with UNPOS, the UN Political Office for Somalia and establishing of the Joint Constitution Unit. He was also instrumental in the surge of UNDP activities in Mogadishu.

Between 2007 and 2009, Rodriguez served as UNDP Pakistan’s Country Director. Under the UN pilot ‘Delivering as One’, he co-chaired two UN Thematic Working Groups on Environment and Disaster Management.

He also set up the Administrative Agent functions of the One Fund within UNDP and facilitated operations through a gradual worsening of the security situation, collaborating with Security Management Team and UN Department of Safety and Security, launching the Security Team in UNDP.

Before beginning his term as Country Director, Rodriguez served as Policy Support Coordinator, Bureau of Development Policy in New York, between 2003 and 2007. There, he promoted knowledge management activities with the global UN system globally and oversaw UNDP’s Global Programme. Between 2000 and 2003, he served as Chief Bangkok Sub-regional Resource Facility where he facilitated over 500 advisory missions on key development priorities in Asia and the Pacific. 

Prior to joining the UN, Alvaro was a consultant at the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa Canada.

Originally from Chile, Rodriguez is a Canadian national. He holds degrees in several fields related to development and development economics and carried out PhD course work in Australia. His mother tongues are English and Spanish. He is married to Fainula Kurji and has two children, Khalil and Sameer.