Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Robert Watkins of Canada as his Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan. Mr. Watkins will also serve as the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan. Mr. Watkins replaces Bo Asplund of Sweden who will be completing his assignment this summer. The Secretary-General is grateful to Mr. Asplund for his dedicated service for the past two years in Afghanistan.
Mr. Watkins brings to this position broad experience in preparing and managing responses to complex humanitarian emergencies and post-conflict recovery programmes in the Middle East, the Caribbean and Europe/CIS.
United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and the United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative in Georgia, since 2006, he also served as Head of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) Regional Office for the Middle East, in Jordan and as Head of the ECHO Regional Office for the Caribbean in the Dominican Republic.
He also served as Head of Sub-Delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Turkey and as Head of the Delegation of the IFRC in Iraq.
Earlier in his career, he worked for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in Geneva and Ottawa and as a consultant for the Pan American Health Organization in Washington.
Mr. Watkins holds an M.A. in International Relations from Carleton University School of International Affairs and a B.A. in History from the University of Toronto.
Born on 27 September 1955, Mr. Watkins is married and has three children.
News source: United Nations Secretariat
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