United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Jaap van Hierden of the Netherlands as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Mongolia, with the host Government’s approval, on 1 January.

Mr. van Hierden has more than 30 years of experience in development, humanitarian action and peacebuilding, including establishing, managing and leading offices and projects and strategic, policy, operational, managerial, and coordination roles and responsibilities.

Most recently he served as the first UN Resident Coordinator of the new UN Multi-Country Office in Micronesia hosted by Pohnpei/Federated States of Micronesia supporting Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Kiribati. In this capacity, he led the UN country team to ensure their support to achieve national development goals. From 2018 to 2021, he worked with Cordaid in Afghanistan. He worked with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in the Philippines and Cambodia from 2013 to 2016 and for UNOPS in various roles in Copenhagen, New York, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok from 1995 to 2013. He worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bangkok in 1994, and from 1991 to 1993 he served in Sierra Leone with the United Nations Capital Development Fund.

Mr. van Hierden holds a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He is married, with three adult children and one teenager.