Leadership Team

Lionel Laurens, Resident Representative, UNDP Somalia

Lionel Laurens has over 30 years of experience serving in international organizations. He took up the role of UNDP Resident Representative in Somalia in 2023 after serving for four years as UNDP’s Resident Representative in Zambia.

Prior to this, Laurens was the UNDP Guinea Country Director. From 2014 to 2015, he was the UNDP Sierra Leone Head of Programmes and supported the reprogramming of interventions to respond to the Ebola crisis.

From 2008 to 2014, he was the UNDP Iraq Inclusive Growth and Area-Based Development Cluster Team Leader, managing a portfolio of projects focusing on local governance, service delivery, economic recovery and poverty reduction. Before that, he worked in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2008 as a UNDP Programme Manager, engaging with communities to rebuild rural infrastructure, deliver basic services and promote economic development.

From 2002 to 2005, Laurens contributed to the launch of the World Bank-supported CDD Poverty Reduction Fund in Laos as a Senior Technical Advisor. From 1997 to 2002, he worked with the Laotian Government, ILO, and UNDP, developing participatory and integrated planning approaches. He has also worked with NGOs on a variety of humanitarian issues in Cambodia, Haiti, Georgia, and Liberia.

A French national, Laurens holds a Master’s in Engineering and Management from the French Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers and an MSc in Sustainability and Responsibility from Ashridge Business School in the UK.

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Dr. Christopher Laker, Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP Somalia

Dr. Christopher Laker brings 24 years of experience in project and programme management, including nearly 20 years in conflict and post-conflict settings.

Christopher has worked in various countries. His conflict / post conflict experience began in Northern Uganda during the LRA insurgency (2004–2008), where he played a crucial role in humanitarian response programming and transitioning into a stabilization programme through a World Bank supported reconstruction programme. He started his UN career with UNDP Somalia in 2009, managing a Joint Programme for IDP protection, reintegration, and resettlement that had five UN agencies (UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF, FAO and UN Habitat) contributing. In 2011, he moved and held the key role of Regional Programme Manager with UNDP in Sudan / Darfur, managing four interrelated governance and rule of law projects (Community Policing, Support to the Judiciary, Planning and Public Expenditure Management and Rule of Law) in the Darfur region. His main area of expertise was in the Rule of Law domain where he managed several joint programmes with UN agencies and with the Rule of Law and Human Rights sections of the UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) until its final drawdown. In Darfur, he also provided oversight for UNDP operational and programmatic activities across five field offices as the Senior Regional Coordinator and Head of the Darfur Field offices, focusing on joint programmes with UN agencies and resource mobilization during the UNAMID transition.

In 2021, he moved to Libya as the Deputy Resident Representative (Programmes) where he led the formulation of the Country Programme Document (CDP) 2023 – 2025 and was the focal point for UNDP in the formulation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) (2023 – 2025). He was in Efforts are still instrumental in setting up the programme pillar units (Governance and Rule of Law, Local Peacebuilding and Environment and Energy Projects) recruiting programme staff for the Libya Office that eventually moved from Tunis to Tripoli. Furthermore, he intensively engaged with the government resulting in conclusion of several cost sharing agreements for reconstruction of war-ravaged areas in Libya. Under his leadership, UNDP chaired the Early Recovery Working Group, one of several that was constituted in the aftermath of Storm Daniel, a major hurricane that made landfall in Eastern Libya and devastating several cities in 20 Municipalities. Efforts are still ongoing to support affected communities. Under his guidance, several new projects were initiated in the Libya Country Office. During July 2023 – July 2024 (and until his departure), he was appointed by RBAS HQ as the UNDP Resident Representative a.i.

Christopher also has extensive experience in rural development. He managed a USD 100 million World Bank-supported project in Uganda that implemented sub projects on rural livelihoods supporting vulnerable groups, community infrastructure, and conflict management in Uganda using the Community Driven Approach. Similar and sister projects were implemented in Tanzania and Malawi. Prior to that he was engaged as a Technical Advisor on a European Union funded programme regional rural development programme covering Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia on livestock disease control, land use and vector control using alternative approaches.

Prior to that, and subsequent to his academic studies, Christopher was involved in international research programmes, working with several international organizations and academic institutions in several countries on economics of disease control strategies for several livestock diseases including east coast fever, heartwater and trypanosomiasis.

A Ugandan citizen, Christopher holds a Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Economics and a Master’s degree in the same field.

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