United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has announced the appointment of Abdullah al-Dardari from Syria as the Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Director, and Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), effective immediately.
After serving for some time, Abdullah Dardari was succeeded by Khalida Bouzar from Algeria, who recently retired after more than three decades of working in various United Nations agencies. The Secretary-General has deeply appreciated Bouzar’s dedicated service over the years.
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Dardari is currently serving as the UNDP Resident Representative in Afghanistan, a position he has held since 2019. Before joining the UNDP, he worked as a Senior Advisor at the World Bank.
Dardari started his career in 1986 as a clerk for international affairs and bureau chief of the Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat. Later, he worked as an economist at the Arab League office in London. In 1994, he joined the UNDP Syria Country Office as a Programme Officer, a position he held until 1997. He then served as Head of the Trade Promotion Section at the Arab Trade Finance Program/Arab Monetary Fund Group. In 2003, he was appointed as the head of the State Planning Commission in Syria, a position he held until 2005, when he became the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs.
He also served as Chief Economist at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in 2011 and then as Deputy Executive Secretary, leading efforts to understand conflict dynamics in the Arab region.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Richmond College in London, UK, an MA in International Relations from the University of Southern California, U.S., and an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Post-Conflict Reconstruction from the University of Iuav di Venezia, Italy. He also studied International Relations at the London School of Economics, UK. He is fluent in Arabic, English and French and understands Russian and Turkish.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
