Cameroonian, Susan Ngongi, appointed UN Resident Coordinator in Tanzania.

Most recently, Susan Ngongi Namondo served as the UN Resident Coordinator in Uganda from 2021 to 2024. 

Prior to that, she served as UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Eritrea from 2017 to 2021.  

Before joining the Resident Coordinator, she served as UNICEF Representative in Ghana from 2013 to 2017 and Comoros from 2010 to 2013, as well as in various positions as Emergency Programme Specialist in UNICEF.  

Susan Ngongi Namondo is an animal scientist, public administrator and diplomat who has served the UN in different capacities.

Ngongi Namondo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and a Bachelor of Science degree in animal science, both from the University of Maryland in the United States. 

Her degree of Master of Public Administration was awarded by Columbia University in New York City. She also earned a Master of Science degree in animal health from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. 

For the past 25 years or thereabout, Ngongi Namondo has served in various roles for international organizations and global non-government organizations, NGOs, in the areas of social development, economic development and humanitarian assistance. 

Before joining the United Nations in 2000, she worked with Catholic Relief Services, Caritas Internationalis and Bioversity International, formerly International Plant Genetic Resources Institute. 

She served as a consultant at the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (today Biodiversity International), in Rome, Italy in 2000. 

She then served one year consecutive stints as a Resident Project Officer based in Rumbek, Sudan and in Lokichoggio, Kenya, working with the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF. 

She was then transferred to Malakal, Sudan as an Emergency Officer with UNICEF, working there in 2004. The following year, she was transferred to Nairobi, Kenya, working there in the same capacity for one year. 

In 2006, UNICEF transferred her to New York City, as an Emergency Programme Specialist, serving in that role for two years. 

She was then relocated to West Africa, serving as Deputy UNICEF Representative to Liberia for the two years 2008–2010, based in Monrovia, Liberia's capital city. 

For the next three years, 2010–2013, she moved east, serving as the UNICEF Representative to Comoros, based in Moroni, the country's capital city. She went back west to serve as the UNICEF Representative to Ghana, based in Accra, for the next four years from 2013 until 2017. 

In 2017, she was appointed as the United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Eritrea, serving there for the next four years. In June 2021, she was relocated to Uganda, in the same capacity, based in Kampala, the country's capital city. 

Susan Ngongi Namondo presented her credentials to Uganda's Foreign Minister, GeneralJeje Odongo on 16 July 2021, in Kampala. On 26 July 2021, she presented her credentials to Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the President of Uganda, at State House, Entebbe. 

She replaced Rosa Malango, who was promoted to serve as Director of UN Regional Commissions New York Office, based in New York City.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3282 of Wednesday November 06, 2024