Christopher Laker
 

Deputy Resident Representative-Programme for Libya

Christopher has over 23 years of project/programme management experience (with about 18 years of experience in development programme/project management specifically in conflict and post-conflict contexts/settings first in Northern Uganda (2004 – 2008) during the LRA insurgency, Somalia/Kenya (2008 – 2010), Darfur/Sudan (2011 – 2021) managing donor funded projects in humanitarian response programming, early recovery, rule of law/governance, livelihoods, reconstruction and development interventions through decentralized frameworks, and Libya since September 2021. 

Christopher has extensive rural development experience, initially as a member of a European Consulting firm in Uganda (and headquartered in the UK) (2000 – 2004) and subsequently as a Project Manager/Coordinator for a USD  100 million five-year World Bank-supported project in Northern Uganda focusing on rural livelihoods, community infrastructural development and community reconciliation and conflict management using community-driven development (CDD) approaches.

He started his UN career in UNDP Somalia (2009) where he managed a UN Joint Programme enhancing the protection, reintegration and resettlement of IDPs in Somalia. The Joint Programme had five UN partners (UNHCR, UN-HABITAT, UNICEF, FAO and UNDP) and was implemented in Bosaso, Puntland. He then moved to Darfur, Sudan in 2011, first as a Regional Programme Manager for a cluster of rule of law and governance projects, and ending his tour of duty in Sudan as the Senior Regional Coordinator and Head of the UNDP Team in Darfur, providing oversight for five field offices. In Darfur, he managed several joint programmes, notably a Rule of Law Joint Programme with UN agencies and the UN peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) during 2014 – 2018, and a Joint programme with UN Women on Reconciliation and Peaceful Co-existence. In Darfur (2018 – 2020), he led the UNDP partnership with the hybrid UN – African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) where he supported resource mobilization efforts during the UNAMID transition period (drawdown and closure). During this process, UNDP accessed USD 18 million from assessed budgets in New York and co-led the rule of law and human rights priority areas. UNDP supported capacity building for the justice sector and law enforcement institutions in Darfur through infrastructural investments, training of staff on technical mandates and enhancing the functionality of institutions at both state and locality levels. Christopher has a master’s degree in epidemiology and economics (1994) and a Ph.D. in epidemiology and economics (1999).