Manal Fouani (Lebanon)

UNDP Resident Representative a.i. to Ukraine since March 2022

From September 2019 and until March 2022, Ms. Fouani served as UNDP Deputy Resident Representative to Ukraine.

Before joining UNDP Ukraine, Ms. Fouani was the Country Liaison and Coordination Specialist for Western CIS and South Caucasus at the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS (2017-2019) in New York, covering Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Between 2012 and 2017, Manal served as the Head of the Strategic Advisory and Advocacy unit in UNDP Syria working on resilience building and early recovery programme focusing on infrastructure rehabilitation, economic recovery and livelihoods and social cohesion. Within the context of the multi-dimensional operational solutions for the Syria crisis, Manal worked as the Early Recovery Advisor and Whole of Syria Early Recovery Cluster Coordinator (Syria/Turkey/Jordan hubs) in close collaboration with the HCT and UN leadership. She initially joined UNDP Syria as the Chief Technical Advisor for a Decentralization and local governance project in 2011.

Manal started its engagement with UNDP in 2004 in Lebanon working on social development, conflict prevention, recovery and peace building, including the 2006 recovery and reconstruction response.

Before joining UNDP, Manal worked for UNICEF, Mines Advisory Group and Mercy Corps - among other aid agencies - on mine action, M&E and local development issues in Lebanon, Iraq and Switzerland.

Ms. Fouani holds a Master’s Degree in Poverty Reduction: Policy and Practice, with emphasis on Development Management from the University of London, SOAS and a BSc. in Medical and Social Work from the Faculty of Public Health at the Lebanese University in Beirut.

A native Arabic speaker, she is fluent in English and French.

You can follow Manal Fouani on Twitter and LinkedIn.