Christian Saunders

Christian Francis Saunders (born 1961, United Kingdom) is the Acting Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Christian Francis Saunders
StyleHis Excellency
TitleUnder-Secretary-General of the United Nations (USG)

In November 2019, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Christian Saunders as Acting Commissioner-General of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) following allegations of mismanagement by the agency’s leadership.[1] He was tasked with reforming the agency and setting it on a new path.[2]

Before UNRWA, Saunders was the Assistant Secretary-General, Office of Central Support-Services in the Department of Management and the Assistant Secretary-General for Supply Chain Management in the Department of Operational Support.[3][4] Over his thirty-year career in international affairs, Saunders has earned a reputation for producing results and managing major UN reforms leading to improved organisational efficiency and effectiveness.,[5][6]

Early life

Saunders was born in the United Kingdom and spent his early childhood in South East Asia before returning to the United Kingdom to attend boarding school at the age of seven. He is a graduate of Royal Holloway at the University of London and the University of Wales.  

Career

Saunders began his career in 1984 working in humanitarian relief for Save the Children in the Sudan where he established and managed refugee camps and then in Mozambique overseeing the relief and development program. In 1989, his United Nations career began with UNRWA in Gaza during the First Intifada.[7] Subsequently, he served in several field positions with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the United Nations Office of the Special Coordinator for Sarajevo .[8] He later undertook short term assignments on behalf of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) [9] to set up their emergency humanitarian response operations in both Kosovo [10] and East Timor.[11]

Starting in 2001, Saunders held a series of senior management positions at the United Nations Secretariat in New York City. Some of his notable achievements included: coordinating duty of care for humanitarian personnel across the affected countries during the Ebola Outbreak in 2014;[12]  orchestrating the successful deployment of the UN’s new enterprise resource planning system – UMOJA - across UN Headquarters in 2015 [13] -  and advancing the Secretary General’s management reforms.[14][15] He also co-chaired the working group which developed the UN’s new ‘whistleblower’ protection policy in 2017.[16]

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East

At UNRWA, Saunders prioritised operational continuity and introduced management reforms to strengthen the agency and promote greater transparency, effectiveness and accountability.[17][18] In a brief period, he obtained overwhelming support for the renewal of UNRWA’s mandate by the United Nations General Assembly,[19][20] unlocked donor funding that had been frozen due to the investigation,[21][22][23] and secured pledges for additional funds.[24][25] However, Saunders continues to highlight the agency’s significant financial shortfall, and called upon donor states to support the organisation’s vital programs with additional contributions.[26]

Other activities
gollark: Unlike CPUs, stuck executing C-style code insecurely via huge fragile stacks of abstraction.
gollark: See, GPUs are *actually good*.
gollark: That would be CUDA.
gollark: No.
gollark: It's basically as fast as C(++).

References
  1. "Secretary-General Appoints Christian Saunders of United Kingdom Acting Deputy Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  2. Gunness, Chris (2019-12-08). "The UN's fight for Palestinian refugees goes on – but its key agency needs help". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  3. "Christian Saunders of United Kingdom Appointed Assistant Secretary-General, Office of Central Support-Services, Department of Management | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  4. "Mr. Christian Saunders | United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination". www.unsystem.org. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  5. "Acting Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)". United Nations Secretary-General. 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  6. Gunness, Christopher. "Repurposing the UNRWA in a post-truth world". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  7. "Statement of the officer-in-charge UNRWA: special political and decolonization committee". UNRWA. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  8. "IFOR UN-Documents : S/1996/381". www.nato.int. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  9. "UNDP" (PDF).
  10. "UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND WELCOMES SUPPORT FROM UNITED STATES SENATE TO RESTORE FUNDING | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  11. "UNITED NATIONS APPEALS FOR $199 MILLION TO MEET URGENT NEEDS STEMMING FROM CRISIS IN EAST TIMOR | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  12. "Acting Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)". United Nations Secretary-General. 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  13. "In defence of Umoja | UN Special". Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  14. Hub, IISD's SDG Knowledge. "UNGA Adopts Management, Peacebuilding Restructuring Proposals Following Fifth Committee Approval | News | SDG Knowledge Hub | IISD". Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  15. "EU Statement – United Nations 5th Committee: Global Service Delivery Model". EEAS - European Commission (in Indonesian). Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  16. "Secretary-General Guterres approves updated UN whistleblower protection policy". UN News. 2017-01-23. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  17. "Palestine Refugee Agency Tackling Management Issues, Continues to Deliver Vital Services amid Misconduct Probe, Officer in Charge Tells Fourth Committee | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  18. Heaney, Christopher. "Statement of UNRWA Acting Commissioner-General to the Advisory Commission". Question of Palestine. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  19. Heaney, Christopher. "Immense Support for the Renewal of the UNRWA Mandate at the UN General Assembly - Press Release". Question of Palestine. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  20. "UN extends mandate for agency supporting Palestinian refugees". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  21. "Swiss government resumes UNRWA funding". Middle East Monitor. 2019-12-23. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  22. "Netherlands resumes funding towards UNRWA with additional $6m". Middle East Monitor. 2019-12-11. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  23. "Belgium reinstates support to UNRWA - occupied Palestinian territory". ReliefWeb. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  24. "155-million-2020". UNRWA. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  25. "UNRWA receives new funding from the UAE". UNRWA. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  26. Heaney, Christopher. "UNRWA Launches 2020 Budget Appeal for US $1.4 Billion - Press Release". Question of Palestine. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  27. "New task force to develop strategy to strengthen UN response to sexual exploitation and abuse". UN News. 2017-01-06. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  28. "United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund » United Nations Staff Pension Committee". Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  29. "Christian Saunders | International Gender Champions". genderchampions.com. Retrieved 2020-03-10.


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