OREANDA-NEWS. United Nations Secretary-General Ant?nio Guterres announced today the appointment of Ruby Sandhu-Rojon as his new Deputy Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel.

She succeeds Hiroute Guebre Sellassie, who completed her assignment on 6 August 2017. The Secretary-General is grateful for Ms. Guebre Sellassie’s accomplishments as Special Envoy for the Sahel and later as Deputy Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel, including for her role in mobilizing international support for the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel.

Ms. Sandhu-Rojon brings to the position extensive experience with the Organization, including in leadership positions at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and strong strategic planning, coordination, and programmatic skills. Since 2014, she has been the UNDP Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Regional Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa. She served as United Nations Resident Coordinator in Ghana from 2010 to 2014, and was the UNDP Country Director in Burkina Faso, where she also assumed the interim role of Resident Representative.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Sandhu-Rojon was posted to Germany as Chief of the Africa Section of United Nations Volunteers (UNV), and to Madagascar as Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP from 1999 to 2002. She was Special Assistant to the UNDP Administrator from 1997 to 1999, having begun her career as a Programme Officer at the Africa Section of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Born in 1962, Ms. Sandhu-Rojon holds a Master of Science in Russian Politics from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Bryn Mawr College in the United States, specializing in international economics and politics.

She is married and has two children.