Crisis Prevention and Recovery Newsletter

Sevenais Sterling
Deputy Resident Representative for Operations, Cote d'Ivoire and UNDP SURGE Advisor

With more than 15 years of experience working in finance and operations, often in crisis affected countries, Sevenais is a valuable addition to UNDP’s immediate crisis response (SURGE) advisors’ roster. He joined the roster in 2007, shortly after the staff deployment mechanism was established.
Since then, Sevenais has undertaken two missions. Most recently, he was deployed to Chad to assess the needs of the country office and ensure that staff received support. Sevenais was familiar with Chad, having worked there for two years prior to joining UNDP in Cote d’Ivoire where he currently works as the Deputy Resident Representative for Operations. In addition to finance and administration work, Sevenais oversees a mechanism established to channel funds for a post-conflict recovery programme and elections. Sevenais’ experience working in Chad as an immediate crisis response advisor gave him greater confidence in his ability to respond to a crisis should it occur in his own duty station. Sevenais holds a BSc in Accounting from Hunter College of the City University of New York.

Didier Trebucq
Deputy Resident Representative for Programme and Operations, Guyana and UNDP SURGE Advisor

Didier began his career with UNDP in India working on a disaster risk management programme. Shortly after the South Asian tsunami, he was reassigned to coordinate UN recovery efforts in Southern India. Now with institutional systems such as the immediate crisis response (SURGE) deployment mechanism in place, UNDP can respond more effectively when crisis strikes. Didier joined the advisor roster in 2007 as a Recovery Advisor. He was dispatched to the Solomon Islands shortly after a tsunami struck a remote part of the nation of islands. There he worked with the country office to establish an early recovery strategy. He recently took a position as Deputy Resident Representative for Programme and Operations in Guyana. Before joining UNDP, Didier worked with several nongovernmental organizations, including the Red Cross in Central Asia and Latin America. Prior to that, he worked in the banking sector in France. Didier has two postgraduate degrees, one in Business Administration from Toulouse-France and an MSc in Sustainable Development from Imperial College London.