UNITED NATIONS – UN Secretary General António Guterres has appointed senior UN official Ruby Sandhu-Rojon as his new Deputy Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel.
Sandhu-Rojon succeeds Hiroute Guebre Sellassie, who completed her assignment this month.
“Sandhu-Rojon brings to the position extensive experience with the United Nations, including in leadership positions with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and strong strategic planning, coordination, and programmatic skills,” a UN statement said.
Sandhu-Rojon has served in leadership positions with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Since 2014, she has been serving as the UNDP Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Regional Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa.
She served as UN Resident Coordinator in Ghana from 2010 to 2014, and was the UNDP Country Director in Burkina Faso, where she also assumed the interim role of Resident Representative.
Earlier in her career, Sandhu-Rojon was posted to Germany as Chief of the African Section of UN Volunteers (UNV), as Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in Madagascar from 1999 to 2002, and as Special Assistant to the Administrator of UNDP from 1997 to 1999.
She started her career as a Programme Officer at the African section of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
Born in 1962, Sandhu-Rojon holds a Masters degree from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Political Science specialising in International Economics and Politics from Bryn Mawr College, US.
