Our Team in Sierra Leone

Ms. Seraphine Wakana (a national of Burundi) served as the UN Resident Coordinator for the Republic of the Gambia from October 2018 to December 2023 before transitioning to Sierra Leone in the same position, and she was the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Guinea (2014-2018). She was assigned as Senior Economist at the Regional Office of the African Development Bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2010-2014), and she acted as the Bank's Resident Representative (2011-2012). From 2005 to 2010, Seraphine worked as an international consultant with UNDP, the African Development Bank, and the World Bank. She served at the same time as the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Korea in Burundi.

Ms Wakana was Minister of Development Planning and Reconstruction (2002-2005) and Chief of Staff with the same Ministry of the Government of Burundi (1997-1999). From 2000 to 2002, she worked as a professional researcher on poverty reduction, public-private sector interface, and gender with the Burundi Economic Development Institute in Bujumbura. She held a series of executive positions with the Institute of Statistics and Economic and Social Studies of Burundi, including as Deputy Director (1996-1997), Head of the Statistical Processing Division (1990-1996) and Head of the Household Statistics Section (1987-1989).

She holds a Master's degree in Development Economics from Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA and a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Administration from the University of Burundi, Bujumbura. She speaks French and English.

Abdu Muwonge is the Country Manager for Sierra Leone (AFWVP). Abdu, a Ugandan national, joined the Bank in 2006 as a Young Professional. He has served as Senior Urban Specialist at the World Bank based in Kenya, where he led and coordinated the urban and devolution work program. He has previously served as Acting Program Leader for Sustainable Development covering Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda. Prior to joining the Africa region, he served in the South Asia Region where he led and supported programs on local government and water and sanitation in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. He has worked in the Eastern and Central Asia region in the Human Development Economics Unit contributing to the Ukraine, Serbia and Moldova work program.

Prior to joining the Bank, Abdu worked as a Research Fellow at the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) in Uganda and has previously taught undergraduate economics and statistics at Makerere University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda.

Abdu holds a PhD and M.A in Economics (Public Finance) both from Georgia State University (USA), M.A in Economics from University of Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) and a BSC in Economics from Makerere University (Uganda). He brings more than 20 years of working experience in development. Abdu’s top three priorities will be to: (i) Lead and oversee the day-to-day dialogue with the Government of Sierra Leone and key partners and stakeholders; (ii) Manage the Country Office, provide leadership and mentoring to the staff, as well as ensuring a stimulating work environment; and (iii) Continue efforts to improve the development impact of the Bank’s portfolio in the country.

Amado de Andrés (Spain) to the position of Representative, UNODC Regional Office for West and Central Africa (ROSEN), effective 1 March 2021. He brings to his assignment extensive relevant substantive and managerial experience in
developing, negotiating, implementing and monitoring UNODC technical assistance programmes, as well as in building and maintaining close partnerships with all relevant stakeholders in government, the wider UN, private sector and civil society organizations. Prior to his new assignment, Dr. de Andrés served as Representative of the UNODC Regional Office for Eastern Africa (ROEA).

Mr de Andrés joined UNODC in 2004 as the Programme Manager in Dakar in the Regional Office for West and Central Africa in Senegal (ROSEN). Since then, he has held various positions within UNODC, including: Representative of the Regional Office for Central America and the Caribbean in Panama (ROPAN); Team Leader of the Latin America and the Caribbean Team; and Drug Control and Crime Prevention Officer with the same team at UNODC headquarters in Vienna.

Before joining UNODC, Dr. de Andrés worked for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the World Bank, the European Commission and Samsung. He holds a Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Michigan, USA and a master’s degree in Public Administration from the College of Europe, Belgium. He is fluent in English, French and Spanish and has a knowledge of Portuguese.

Sofia has more than 15 years of experience in international development in both humanitarian and development contexts, many of which she spent leading both operations and programmes teams across West, Central and Southern Africa and Latin America. She held country and regional leadership roles for international NGOs, including Concern Worldwide, Save The Children, Helen Keller International, Oxfam, and International Medical Corps. She brings with her vast experiences in implementing programmes on public health, sexual and reproductive health, child survival, health systems strengthening, WASH, protection, girls’ education, nutrition, economic empowerment, peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

Sofia also brings her in-depth experience of Sierra Leone, where she has worked in different management roles for more than five years. She has significant experience in mainstreaming gender equality, addressing gender-based violence and empowering women and girls. She has a PhD in human rights.

Mr. Ayéda Robert Kotchani has worked with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for over 18 years. In 1999, he began his international career as a Legal Officer at the Secretariat of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) in Banjul, The Gambia, where he worked for eight years. From 2006 to 2009, he worked for OHCHR in Uganda, then in several OHCHR country and regional offices, as a deputy representative in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Yaoundé, Cameroon, and in Bujumbura, Burundi, where in 2014/15, he led the transition of the United Nations Office for Burundi (BNUB) to the OHCHR Country Office in Burundi as the Acting Country Representative of the High Commissioner.

He also worked for the United Nations Office for Central Africa (UNOCA) in Libreville, Gabon, as a Human Rights Advisor to the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Central Africa.

Mr. Kotchani’s most recent position was as Representative of the High Commissioner and Head of the OHCHR Country Office in Uganda (2018-2022).

Mr. Kotchani holds an LLM in International Law and an LLB in English, both obtained at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin.

On 28 August 2018, the Director-General of UNESCO appointed Mr. Dimitri Sanga (Canada), Director of the UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office for West Africa (Sahel) in Dakar (Senegal) and UNESCO Representative to Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Niger.

He officially took up his duties on 1 September 2018, and OIC of UNESCO Abuja Multisectoral Office on 1st January 2021.

He holds a PhD and a Master's degree in Economics with a specialisation in econometrics from Laval University (Canada), as well as a Bachelor's degree in Wood Science and Engineering from the same institution. Mr Sanga began his professional career in 1999 in the teaching of micro- and macro-economic sciences at the University of Ottawa (Canada), in parallel with a career as a Statistical Economist (1999-2004) with the Government of Canada.

In 2005, he joined the United Nations as Head of the Statistics Team at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa - UNECA (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia). In 2006, he was appointed Head of Statistical Development and Data Management at UNECA. In 2010, he was appointed Director of the Statistics Division of the Economic Commission for Africa.

Before joining his post in Senegal, he was, since September 2013, the Director and Representative of the Sub-regional Office for West Africa of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, based in Niamey (Niger).

Fredrick Ampiah has over 28 years of development and management experience in varied contexts. Prior to his appointment as Resident Representative, he was the UNDP Regional Coordinator (SALW) for the West and Central Africa Sub-Regional Hub, based in Dakar and Regional Project manager of the Organized Crime West Africa Response to Trafficking (OCWART) and the Cross-Border Management of Small Arms projects in the ECOWAS region. He also served as Acting Chief of the Country Oversight Support Team (COST) with the Regional Bureau for Africa in New York. He was the Regional Coordinator of the EU-funded ECOWAS project across seven ECOWAS States (July 2015 – 2020) and has served in different senior leadership roles in UNDP including Resident Representative in UNDP Nigeria; UNDP Deputy Country Director (Programme) in Nigeria, Assistant Country Director - Partnership Resource Mobilization in UNDP in Somalia, Partnerships Adviser with UNDP Ghana and Ebola Crisis Manager in Liberia (Oct 2013-Feb 2015), in addition to his role as the Partnerships and Compliance Adviser in UNDP Liberia.
Mr. Ampiah is a Harvard Kennedy School of Government Executive Education in Emerging Leadership graduate. He holds a master’s degree (MSc) in International Business Economics and a Postgraduate degree in International Management from Aalborg University, Denmark. He graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and History.

Dr George Ameh was appointed as WHO Representative to Sierra Leone in November 2024. Prior to this, he served as the WHO Representative to Equatorial Guinea between 2021 and late 2024. He has been working with the United Nations (UNICEF and WHO) since 2001 in countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East with various responsibilities in emergency and development programmes in public health. Before this, he worked in the NGO sector with Action Contre La Faim in Africa and Haiti, between 1998 – 2001.

Dr Ameh is trained as a medical doctor and has undertaken further studies in public health, holding a Master’s degree from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a Doctorate degree from Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK. He is from Nigeria.

Ms. Kalweo, a formally trained public health and communication specialist, has served in various advisory, planning, management, advocacy and coordination functions, providing oversight and leadership to various country-level multi-partner processes and contributing to regional and global level agendas and processes. She has served with UNAIDS in various capacities, including in Kenya, where she was a Social Mobilization Adviser; in Uganda as an Institutional Development Adviser; in Ethiopia as the Senior Programme Adviser supporting the country office as well as the UNAIDS Liaison Office to the African Union and Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). At the Regional Support Team for Eastern Southern Africa (ESA) based in Johannesburg, SA, she supported the office of the Regional Director and the Deputy. She served in various advisory capacities in Zimbabwe and ended her tour as the Country Director ad interim. Before joining UNAIDS, Ms Kalweo worked on various health programming initiatives for Population Services International (PSI) Kenya. She holds a master’s in public health from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, and an MA in cultural communication from the University of Western Sydney, Nepean. She is a Kenyan national.

Ms Mariatu SWARAY was appointed UNIDO Sierra Leone Country Representative in March 2017. Previously, she worked with UNDP Sierra Leone as the Energy and Environment Programme Specialist and led the development of key initiatives in climate change environment and development. She has also worked with the Government of Sierra Leone and a private firm. She holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Sierra Leone

Pascaline Barankeba is a socio-economist development expert with over 24 years of experience in leadership and management, rural development, UN/Donor coordination, gender equality, partnerships, and resource mobilisation. She has served as IFAD Country Director for Liberia and Sierra Leone since 2022 and was previously the IFAD Country Director for West and Central Africa, covering Cote d’Ivoire. Before joining IFAD, she worked within other UN agencies in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Burundi. She previously led and coordinated various international and national NGOs, worked at the Ministry of Planning and Reconstruction, supported the socio-economic research at the Economic Development Institute in Burundi, and served as an independent consultant.
An economist by profession, Ms Barankeba holds a Master’s Degree in Gender, Institutions and Society from the Light University of Bujumbura in close collaboration with the Catholic University of Louvain/Belgium, and a Degree in Economics and Administration from the University of Burundi. She is certified in Executive Leadership from Harvard Business Publishing and UNDP and in Human Rights, Health and Discrimination from the University of Geneva.

Pauline Macharia, a Kenyan national, currently serves as the Officer-in-Charge of IOM Sierra Leone. She started her career in international development at IOM as a project manager working on the nexus between migration, environment and climate change and strengthening national coordination structures for migration management. Before joining IOM, Dr. Pauline Macharia worked for over 10 years as an aquatic scientist, majoring in water supply, natural resources management and WASH as a lecturer and researcher in Kenya. She also worked within the banking and financial sectors. Dr. Pauline Macharia graduated with a PhD from the Technical University of Vienna, Austria and a Master’s in Environmental Sciences (Limnology and Wetland Ecosystems) from UNESCO-IHE, the Netherlands.

Rudolf Schwenk is the UNICEF Representative for Sierra Leone. He started his mission in August 2019. After working with NGOs in Germany, he joined the United Nations in 1995 and worked with UNRWA in Jordan and with UNICEF in Niger, India, Denmark, Bhutan and Malawi. He has worked in various programme functions as well as in operations and has achieved sustainable results for children in Field Office, Country Office and Headquarters locations. Prior to his arrival in Sierra Leone in May 2023, he was the UNICEF Representative in Malawi. Mr. Schwenk holds a Master’s in Modern Middle East Political Science and History from the Free University of Berlin.

Saeed A Bancie, a national of Ghana, started his career in 1998 as Monitoring and Information Management Coordinator for the Village Aid Project in Ghana, and in 2001, he became Country Representative. From 2004 to 2008, he worked for International Non-profit Organization “Heifer International” in Arkansas, United States, as Programme Officer of the Africa Area Programme and as Senior Specialist/Programme Officer of the Agriculture Enterprise Development and HIV/AIDS Programmes. Between 2010 and 2013, he served as an Adjunct Faculty Instructor of the International Studies Programme for the University of Arkansas. From 2010 to 2011, he was Programme Manager of the East Africa Dairy Development Programme at Heifer International and, in 2011, he subsequently became East Africa Regional Director at the same institution.

Mr Bancie joined FAO in 2014 as Investment Officer for FAO Somalia, based in Nairobi, Kenya, and from 2015 he served as Agrobusiness Officer. In 2018, he was appointed FAO Representative in Eritrea.

Mr Bancie holds a Master of Science in International Development and Social Change from Clark University in Worcester in the United States, a Master of Science in Development Administration and Planning from the University of London in the United Kingdom, and a Bachelor of Science in Development Planning from the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.

Setcheme Mongbo, the Head of the Office of UN Women, started her professional journey nearly 30 years ago with the Dutch Organization for Development (SNV). Prior to Freetown, she led the UN Women’s offices in Mali, the Central African Republic, and Cote d’Ivoire. Before joining UN Women in 2018, she was the Country Representative of World Learning, Inc., The Africa-America Institute (AAI) and CARE International in various African Countries. She is an economist with a Master of Science Degree in Economics from Benin and a Master of Arts Degree in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University, a US Ivy League University, finalizing a PhD thesis on the contribution of non-profit organizations to Development in West Africa.

Sibeso Mululuma currently serves as the Officer in Charge for UNFPA in Sierra Leone. She has over 20 years of extensive experience in managing development programmes in Government, NGOs and the UN System. She joined UNFPA in 2010 as an Assistant Representative in Zambia and has also served as Deputy Representative ad interim for UNFPA in Uganda in 2020. She took up the role of Deputy Representative for UNFPA in Sierra Leone in 2022 and has been Officer in Charge since December 2024. Prior to her career with the UN, Sibeso served as Country Manager for Land O’Lakes International Development Division in Zambia and in Malawi where she guided the successful implementation of development projects aimed at improving the livelihood status of vulnerable communities. She has also previously worked as a Policy Analyst for the Government of Zambia.

She holds a Master’s Degree in Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Bachelor’s Degree in Demography from the University of Zambia.

Ms Vanessa Phala, a South African national is the Country Director of the ILO Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Prior to this appointment, she worked as a Senior Specialist (Employers’ Activities) at the ILO Office for the Caribbean, in Port of Spain. Before that, she undertook several leading roles in the public and private sectors from 2004 to 2016. She was the Executive Director in charge of Social and Transformation Policy at Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), a non-profit company representing organised business in South Africa. She also served as the Director of the Ethics and Integrity Management Unit and Special Anti-corruption Unit of the South African Department of Public Service and Administration. Her professional career began in 2004, as an Assistant Director in the Policy Research and Analysis Unit of the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
Ms Phala graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2004 where she obtained a Master’s Degree in International Relations and from the University of the West Indies in 2021 where she obtained an Executive Master of Business Administration.

Yvonne Forsen brings to this position extensive experience in managing humanitarian and development programmes in a wide variety of contexts and on a range of issues at country, regional and headquarters levels. Prior to taking up the position of Deputy Country Director of WFP in Sierra Leone in December 2020, she served as Chief, Vulnerability, Analysis and Mapping Division at WFP HQ in Rome from 2016-2020. Her country-level programme leadership experience includes Somalia, Burundi, Kenya, Sudan, DPRK, and Angola.

Yvonne is a national of Sweden and holds a BSc in Nutrition and Dietetics from Gothenburg University, Sweden and a post-graduate qualification in Project Management from Cornell University, USA.