Melanie Hauenstein

Resident Representative

United Nations Development Programme – Syria

Melanie Hauenstein has been the new Resident Representative for UNDP in Syria since July 2026.  

Melanie Hauenstein brings over 20 years of experience in development, peace and humanitarian affairs in the United Nations system to her new role as UNDP Resident Representative for Syria. She held leadership positions in DR Congo, Sudan, New York Headquarters, Mali, Libya and Lebanon and joins from Berlin, where she served as Director of the UNDP Representation Office for Germany.


Ms Hauenstein headed the UNDP country office in Lebanon as Resident Representative (2022–2024). Prior to that, she worked at UNDP Headquarters in New York as Regional Advisor responsible for Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Libya and the Maghreb countries. In 2016, she gained important experience in the field of international security policy as Senior Stabilization Advisor to the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo and as Head of Office of the UN peacekeeping mission in northern Mali (2014-2016).


Previously, Melanie Hauenstein worked in New York at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA, 2013-2014) and the UNDP Office for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (2010 -2013). She supported the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan (2007-2010). She began her career with the United Nations in Congo in 2005 and worked as a UN election expert during the first, and biggest ever UN assisted, democratic elections there. Prior to the UN, she spent time in Costa Rica and Nicaragua to work on rural development and displacement.

Melanie Hauenstein holds a Master's degree in Population and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and studied international politics, sociology and economics in Regensburg, Leipzig and Paris. She is fluent in English, French and Spanish.