Assistant Secretary General, Assistant Administrator and Regional Director, Regional Bureau for Arab States, UNDP
Dr. Khalida Bouzar (Algerian) currently serves as the UN Assistant Secretary General, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States.
The Arab states region covers 17 countries with national and local representation in each country. The Bureau delivers in average a programme of 1 billion USD per year. During the previous UNDP Strategic Plan (2018-2021), the Regional Bureau for Arab States has helped to increase access to basic services for 18 million people, boosted access to justice for 6 million people, and increased the number of women registered to vote by 2.1 million.
Dr. Bouzar is serving currently as a Co Vice-chair of the UN Regional Collaborative Platform in the Arab States region uniting all UN entities working on development for the 2030 Agenda to address key challenges that transcend country borders such as health and environment. She also serves as a Co-chair of the UNDP High-Level steering committee leading the COP27 corporate efforts.
Dr. Bouzar has 35 years of international and national corporate leadership experience, including 25 years in the UN system, and brings strong knowledge and a lifelong passion for sustainable development, poverty reduction and delivering development impact.
Prior to her appointment as Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States, Dr. Bouzar served as Regional Director for Near East, North Africa and Europe, at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) since 2012, where she established and led large-scale programmes and operations with a total investment volume of USD 2.6 billion across 45 countries.
Her key achievements include establishing the Facility for Refugees, Migrants, Forced Displacement and Rural Stability (FARMS); spearheading the current IFAD strategy for engagement in countries with fragile situations; negotiating the first ever country programme engagement with Iraq; and engaging in countries with limited fiscal space such as Yemen.
Earlier, Dr. Bouzar served as the Deputy Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, leading on strategy, policy and portfolio development, and established key partnerships (2008-2012).
Between 2004 and 2008, she led the establishment of the IFAD’s Global Environment and Climate Change business operations contributing to significant resource mobilisation and a wider mainstreaming of these issues throughout IFAD’s operations.
She has also served as Regional Sustainable Development Advisor at UNDP Algeria; International Technical Expert in Drylands Development in the Bureau for Development Policy at UNDP and Programme Director at the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD.
Dr. Bouzar started her career as a Researcher and as Business Development Manager for environment in the Oil and Gas private sector.
She holds a PhD in Science from the University of Sciences, Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, and speaks English, Arabic and French.
