The UNDP Resident Representative (RR) is the accredited senior UNDP official in the country who represents, leads, and is accountable for, harnessing and directing the full potential of UNDP’s global capabilities, and those of its associated funds and programmes, in support of national development strategies and collaborative partnerships. The Resident Representative is supported by two Deputies, one for Programmes and one for Operations. The UNDP Office in South Sudan is made up of about 200 staff in South Sudan.
Dr. Samuel Doe is UNDP’s Resident Representative in South Sudan since January 2021. Dr. Doe previously served as Resident Representative of UNDP Sierra Leone, as well as Senior Policy Advisor and Team Leader, Fragility, Risk and Resilience of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support and Team Leader in the Policy and Planning Division of the Bureau of Crisis Prevention and Recovery both of UNDP. In 2007, he was named Development and Reconciliation Advisor for the UN in Sri Lanka where he worked to resolve the conflict in Sri Lanka between Tamil and Sinhalese communities and later joined the support team for the Secretary General’s Advisory Panel on Sri Lanka as Senior Political Officer. Dr. Doe began his career with UNDP as Senior Conflict Prevention and Civil Society Development Expert with the Pacific Regional Center in Fiji. Prior to UNDP, Doe was a cofounder of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), the largest peacebuilding network in West Africa. He lectured at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at the Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia, USA; the European Peace University in Vienna Austria, and the Caux Scholar Programme in Caux Switzerland. Dr. Doe possesses a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Liberia; a Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University (USA); and a Ph.D. in Social and International Affairs from Bradford University (UK).
Christy Ahenkora is the Deputy Resident Representative in charge of Programmes. She joined UNDP South Sudan in August 2020 from UNDP Lesotho, where she served as Deputy Resident Representative, with responsibility for both Programmes and Operations since September 2015. Prior to joining the Lesotho Country Office, Christy served as the Head of Programmes in UNDP Ghana, where she started her career with the United Nations as a National Programme Officer in November 2000. Christy is a development economist with over thirty-five years’ experience in development planning and management; programme/project planning and management; private sector development; decentralization and local economic development. Prior to joining UNDP, Christy worked as a Planner in the Civil Service of Ghana and on various World Bank and UNDP funded programmes in the areas of decentralization, local economic development and poverty reduction. She holds a Master of Science in Survey Integration for Resources Development from the Institute of Earth Sciences and International Institute for Aerospace and Earth Sciences (Netherlands), with specialization in Programme Planning and Management, and a Bachelor of Science in Development Planning from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana).
Blessed is the Deputy Resident Representative in charge of Operations at UNDP South Sudan. Blessed joined the country office in August 2020. Blessed was Chairperson of the Regional Advisory Committee on Procurement (RACP) for RBA, which advises the RBA Deputy Director in her role as Regional Chief Procurement Officer. He also worked very closely with most of the country offices in the Africa region to strengthen the capacity of procurement staff and oversight committees. Blessed has over 20 years of experience in procurement, supply chain management and general management. He started his career as a Civil Engineer in 1993 and worked in construction, mining and manufacturing sectors in Zimbabwe (1993-2003) prior to joining the UN system through the World Food Programme in South Africa (2003 -2004). He has also held various procurement and contract management positions for UNDP/IAPSO in South Africa and Denmark (2004-2006), UNDP Pakistan (2007-2008), the World Bank in Washington DC, USA (2008-2009) before rejoining UNDP in 2009. Blessed holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering Honors degree (University of Zimbabwe), an MBA (University of Zimbabwe), Certified Diploma in Accounting & Finance, ACCA(UK) and a Graduate Diploma from Purchasing & Supply Chain Management CIPS (UK). He is currently enrolled in the Managing Successful Programmes course.
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