Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Ms. Ivana Živković is Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Assistant Administrator and Director, Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Ms. Živković also serves, together with the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe, as the Co-Vice Chair of the Regional Collaborative Platform for Europe and Central Asia (RCP), which unites all UN entities working on development for the 2030 Agenda. The RCP is chaired by the Deputy Secretary-General.
Ms. Živković is a Croatian career diplomat with more than 25 years of experience. She most recently served as Director-General for Economic Affairs and Development Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. She held various positions in the field of development, regional cooperation, trade and economic diplomacy and was posted to Stockholm and New York. She played a leading role in setting up the framework for international development cooperation in Croatia. During Croatia’s Presidency of the Council of the EU, she has coordinated both trade and development teams.
Ms. Živković holds a Master’s degree in International Economics from the Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Zagreb.
Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS (RBEC) since March 2022
Most recently Ms. Walter served for three years as United Nations Resident Coordinator for the UN’s Multi-Country Office covering Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Aruba, Curaçao, and St. Maarten. Prior to this, she worked from to 2013 to 2018 as UNDP Country Director a.i. and Deputy Country Director in India and as UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Thailand. Ms. Walter also served for five years as the Deployment Coordinator of UNDP’s global emergency rapid response programme (SURGE) in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) in New York following a previous two-year appointment in Kabul, Afghanistan where she managed UNDP’s Civil Service Leadership Development Project. Prior to her time in Afghanistan, she worked as Capacity Building Advisor for UNDP as well as the UN Training and Research Institute (UNITAR) out of Geneva and New York on capacity building, resource mobilization, and public private partnerships, work which led her to Africa, Asia, and Europe. Prior to her joining the United Nations in 1996, Ms. Walter worked as a freelance journalist in Berlin, Germany.
Marina holds a Master degree in Comparative Politics from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA and a Master degree in International Politics, Economics, and Law, from the Free University of Berlin, Germany. She speaks German, French, and English.