Sigrid Kaag Appointed as the Head of Joint OPCW-UN Mission in Syria

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed on 16 October 2013 Sigrid Kaag as head of the joint mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations.
The main objective of the OPCW-UN Mission is to eradicate chemical weapons in Syria.

While announcing her as Special Coordinator, Ban Ki-moon told that Sigrid Kaag will be responsible for overseeing all activities on the ground undertaken by the OPCW and United Nations personnel.

About Sigrid Kaag
• Sigrid Kaag (The Netherlands) worked as UN Secretary-General as Assistant Secretary-General/Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy of the United Nations Development Programme in May 2010.
• Prior to joining UNDP, from 2007 to 2010, Ms. Kaag was acted as UNICEF’s Regional Director for Middle East and North Africa based in Amman, Jordan.
• She served as the Chief of Staff for UNICEF’s Executive Director and as Deputy Director of Programmes in New York.
• She also served as Senior UN Adviser in the Office of the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Khartoum, Sudan.
• She was the Chief of Donor Relations with the International Organization for Migration, and Senior Programme Manager with the External Relations Office of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Jerusalem, covering Lebanon, Jordan, the occupied Palestinian territory and the Syrian Arab Republic from 1998 to 2004.
• Before joining the UN system in 1994, Ms. Kaag served with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands, and as Deputy Head of Sector in its UN Political Affairs Department in The Hague.
• Sigrid Kaag holds a Master’s of Philosophy in International Relations of the Middle East from Exeter University and a Master’s in International Relations from St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford.