Lao PDR

Our Team

The UNDP Lao PDR team consists of 87 staff members; 60 are Lao nationals and 27 are from other countries: Australia, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Republic of Korea, Maldives, Nepal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uzbekistan.

The academic and professional background of the team includes international relations, government affairs, law, international development, social and political science, business, environmental science, forestry, disaster risk reduction, communications and more, providing a wide range of skills and expertise to support the implementation of the UNDP Programme.

Leadership

Mrs. Martine Thérer, Resident Representative

Mrs. Thérer, a national of Belgium is an accomplished senior manager, with more than twenty years of experience of the United Nations system at Headquarters and in the field. She has a strong background in strategic planning, including UN development planning and programming frameworks, processes and tools at country level, with a focus on forging partnerships around joint programmes and with a broad range of stakeholders.

Mrs. Thérer recently served as the Deputy Resident Representative in Morocco. She has also had senior roles for the agency in Tunisia, Haiti, Niger, at UNDP Headquarters, and at the office of the United Nations Secretary-General, at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Mrs. Thérer holds Master’s Degrees in Literature, as well as in Journalism and Communication from Université de Liege, and the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.