Siddharth Chatterjee

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization with 187 member National Societies, providing assistance to prevent and alleviate human suffering, thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world. Humanitarian diplomacy (HD) is concerned with persuading decision-makers and opinion leaders to act in the interests of the most vulnerable. My job as Chief Diplomat is to ensure this happens.

I pursued a mid career fellowship in Public Policy. The decision was compelled by a need to reflect, refocus, recalibrate, as well as acquire wider and deeper analytical skills needed to develop, define and defend public policy that will ultimately improve the lives of the vulnerable people he has worked with all around the world.

Led and provided oversight and guidance in the two large Regional areas spanning Operations Centers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, OPT (Palestinian areas), Switzerland, Central Asian Republics, Yemen and Kosovo. Kept the Regional Office agile in order to nurture UN’s ability to deliver results for clients; supported the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in the two Regions, capacity building of communities and local governments.

Ensured effective coordination of all arms of the UN Mission, the UN Country Team, foreign embassies and donors. Acted as the link to key leadership positions in the Government of Iraq.

Responsible for ensuring programmes to serve children and women in Somalia are run effectively and ensured that the resources and funding were in place.

Support, assist and ensure scaling up of UNICEF Sudan's response to the incipient crisis in Darfur. Coordinated with all stake holders and ensured proper structures and systems in place to enable a robust response.

Ensure that children are protected and have access to services such as Education, Health, Nutrition, clean Water and Sanitation to survive and thrive despite the difficult conditions in Aceh and the Malukus which was experiencing a conflict.

Child poverty