Our team in Cameroon

Agnès Okodombè is the UNV Country Coordinator for Cameroon. She was previously at UNDP Niger as a UNV Program Officer. Agnes has also worked at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Office in Yaoundé (2011-2017).

Mr. Antonio M. A. Pedro is a mineral exploration geologist with over 30 years of experience in development and management.
Apart from his contribution to the extractive industries policy in Africa, he has worked for ECA to boost the continent's structural transformation and regional integration.

Mr. Athman Mravili, is a Comoran national and holds a doctorate in veterinary medicine from the National School of Veterinary Medicine, Sidi Thabet, Tunisia. Since 2009, Mr. Mravili has held several positions of responsibility, notably in Sudan, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea, and FAO's Sub Regional Office in Libreville, Gabon. He has over 20 years of experience in the areas of food security, humanitarian affairs, and livestock in Asia and Africa.

Carla Martinez has over twenty years of experience managing humanitarian, transition, and conflict prevention programmes in conflict and post-conflict contexts. Before her appointment to Cameroon in July 2020, she served as OCHA’s Deputy Head of Office in the Central African Republic. She has served as Senior Political Affairs Officer with the United Nations Department of Political Affairs and as Emergency Specialist for UNICEF. Before joining the United Nations, she worked with Médecins sans Frontières as Head of the Emergency Department, as Head of the Middle East Office in Amman and as Head of Mission in the Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and Sudan and led emergency interventions in different countries as emergency coordinator. She has also worked for IOM, Oxfam and the GAVI Alliance, among others. She holds a Master's in Public Policy from Princeton University and a PhD in Physics.

Dr. Phanuel Habimana is a doctor by training. He has 25 years of experience with WHO. Before his appointment in Cameroon, he was Chief of Health Programmes for Children, Adolescents, and Nutrition at the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo.

Savina Ammassari holds a Ph.D. in Development Studies (University of Sussex) and a master’s in political science (University of Rome 'La Sapienza '). She has over 30 years of professional experience in more than 25 countries in Africa and Asia. She has worked for UNAIDS, UNICEF, the World Bank, UNDP, IOM, ILO, UNV, as well as for international NGOs. Ms. Ammassari is the author of several articles, discussion papers and policies, and a book on migration and development. She is fluent in English, French, German, and Italian and speaks Portuguese and Spanish.

Dr Hanafi brings more than 35 years of national and international leadership experience, of which 10 years has been in the UN system, where he has extensively worked on sustainable development, rural development, environmental protection, Investments, and natural resource management in Central Africa, Eastern Europe, as well as the Near East and North Africa regions. In January 2020, He took up the position of Head of the Central African Hub and Country Director of IFAD Country office in Yaounde (Cameroon, DRC, Congo, Gabon, Chad, Eq. Guinea, CAR and Sao Tome and Principe). He served as a country Director in Egypt from 2013 to 2017, and between 2017 and 2019, he served as IFAD Country Director of DRC and Congo in the West and Central African Division. Born in Morocco, Dr Abdelhaq Hanafi holds a PhD and MS in Agriculture from the University of Minnesota USA, Doctorate Es-Science in Agronomy from IAV Hassan II University in Morocco and DEA Biology from the Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University in Paris.

Hind Jalal is head of the UN Women Cameroon Country Office. Before joining UN Women, Ms. Hind worked for the UNFPA Regional Office for West and Central Africa in Dakar. She has also served at UNFPA's country office in Morocco as Program Specialist / Gender Equality. Hind is a Moroccan national and holds a Ph.D. in Development Law and Economics from the University of Nice, Sophia Antipolis, a Master's degree in Management from the ISCAE Morocco Institute of Commerce and Business Administration as well as a Master’s in management from University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France.

Before his appointment to Cameroon in November 2017, Jacques Boyer (France) worked in Gabon as UNICEF's Representative for Gabon and Sao Tome & Principe (2013-2017), a position he held in addition to that of Representative to the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Previously, he served as Deputy Representative in Nigeria (2010-2013). Jacques holds a master's degree in political studies from the Institut d'études politiques de Toulouse and a bachelor's degree in art history from the Sorbonne.

Before Cameroon, Jean-Luc was Director of the UNDP in Senegal. He was also Senior Deputy Country Director for UNDP in Southern Sudan from 2016 to 2018, Senior Country Director for UNDP in Mali from 2013 to 2016, and Deputy Country Director for UNDP in Pakistan from 2010 to 2013. A French and Rwandan national, he holds a master's degree in social development from the University of the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. He is currently preparing a doctorate in political economy in the nexus between economic growth and human development.

Mr. Jean-Jacques Massima-Landji, 58, has been the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Representative for Central Africa and Madagascar since 2009, with residence in Yaoundé. Previously, he worked at the organization's headquarters in Geneva and the African Regional Organization for Satellite Communication (RASCOM). Trained as telecommunications, computer, and electronics engineer, he has more than 33 years' experience in the field of ICT and computer science.

Of Central African nationality, Mr. Louis-Marie BOUAKA holds a Doctorate in Law, Public Law option, from the University of Montpellier, and is a graduate of the International Peace Research Institute in Geneva. Before serving as Regional Representative of the High Commissioner in Central Africa and Director of the United Nations Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa, he worked for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Rwanda from 1994 to 1998, and for the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, in the Human Rights Sections in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1999 to 2001, in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2001 to 2006 and Haiti from 2007 to 2008. He served as Deputy Director of the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2008 until September 2011, Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Guinea, as well as the Representative of the High Commissioner in Burundi. He is married and father of five children.

Boubacar SEYBOU has nearly ten years of experience with IOM, notably as an office manager in North Kivu in the DRC and his country, Niger. He has also carried out missions to Libya and the areas affected by Boko Haram. Before joining IOM, Boubacar worked with the International Committee for the Development of Peoples (ICSPD) as a doctor in Algiers and as a local coordinator in Niger. He holds a doctorate in medicine from the University of Algiers and a post-graduate diploma (DES) in management from the International Institute of Management of Algeria.

Before taking up office as UNHCR’s Representative in Cameroon in May 2020, Mr Beer, from 2016, was the Deputy Representative for the UNHCR operation in DR Congo which is host to more than half a million refugees and an additional 4.5 million internally displaced persons within the country. With more than 20 years of experience with the United Nations Refugee Agency, he has an excellent mastery of the humanitarian sector having successfully served in different operations in Africa and beyond. Before joining UNHCR, Olivier Guillaume Beer had worked for the Belgian Interior Ministry, as Commissioner for Refugees and Statelessness and also for the Belgian Development and Cooperation Agency in Angola.

Raymond Tavares has over 25 years work experience in innovation management, technology development, quality infrastructure for international trade and development. Tavares holds a PhD in Industrial Economics and a Masters on Innovation Management.
Between 1998 and 2007, he managed several high-impact programmes as the coordinator of technology services for the International Centre for Science and High Technology of UNIDO in Trieste, Italy. From 2007 to 2010, he led the working group Tech Bridge at the Management and Innovation (MAIN) Laboratory of the University of Sant’Anna – School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy. After his brief academic experience, Tavares served as Deputy Representative of UNIDO in the Regional Office, West Africa in Nigeria; and later as Senior Industrial Development Officer at the HQ in Vienna. In recent years, Raymond Tavares has managed projects and programmes aiming at assisting UNIDO member states in their inclusion process in the NIR and the future of manufacturing. Since 2020, Raymond Tavares is the UNIDO Representative in Cameroon and Central African countries.

Mr. Salah Khaled (Egypt) began his career at the United Nations in 1993 in the Operational Development Assistance Unit (ODAU). He then worked as an Operations Assistant for UNICEF's Cairo Office, before joining UNESCO in 2001 as Head of the Liaison and Procurement Unit for Iraq, based in Amman, Jordan. He served as UNESCO's representative in Southern Sudan for the countries of Maghreb, before being appointed in Yaoundé as Regional Director for the Central African region. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the American University in Cairo and a Master of Arts degree in Human Development from the Arab Academy of Alexandria, Egypt.

In December 2019, Silvia Gallo, of Italian nationality, opened the new UNOPS office in Yaoundé. The office represents UNOPS in Cameroon as part of the Sub-Regional Unit based in Kinshasa. Mrs Gallo got a background in architecture and urban planning from the University of Florence, Italy, and the University of Polytechnic of Mons in Belgium. She started her international career 15 years ago, and before her assignment in Cameroon, she was based in Suva, representing UN-Habitat in Fiji and the Solomon Islands. She has also represented UNOPS in the Central African Republic. Her work has revolved around integrated urban and rural development projects and the reinforcement of resilience in contexts characterized by violence and extreme poverty (slums). She has further been involved in peacebuilding, disaster risk reduction, climate change, community capacity building, and the full range of infrastructure projects, including WASH.

Ms. Siti Batoul Oussein (Comoros) has more than 25 years of development experience, with a particular focus on educational planning, reproductive health, and gender equality, along with program management to improve and expand the options of women and youth. She holds a degree in mathematics (University of Senegal), a master's degree in educational administration and planning (Paris I Sorbonne), and a master's degree in human resources planning and employment (Paris I Sorbonne).

Ms. Wanja Kaaria is the Representative & Country Director of the World Food Programme in Cameroon. Prior to this appointment, Wanja served with WFP as Representative & Country Director in The Gambia, from 2018 - 2020. She was also the Deputy Director of WFP - Africa Office to the African Union and UNECA in Addis Ababa (2014-2018). She also served WFP in a variety of other capacities since joining the organization in 1997; as Deputy Country Director of WFP, Senegal (2011-2014); Global Lead - Food Security Monitoring Analysis based in Rome (2008-2011) and Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor, southern Africa based in Johannesburg (2002-2008). She has also worked in South Sudan, Somalia, and western Tanzania with the refugee operation (1997-2002). Before joining the UN, she served the Kenyan Government (Ministry of Lands & Housing) & with the Local Government for over six years. Ms. Kaaria holds an Msc. in Development Planning and Management from the University of Dortmund-Germany, & University of Kwame Nkrumah Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana.