The Resident Coordinator Office

The United Nations Resident Coordinator Office supports the work of the UN Resident Coordinator. The UN Resident Coordinator leads the UN country team in consultation with the Government to define and agree on the UN strategic response to the Government’s development priorities. This response is captured in the Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2022-2026. 

The SPCF is a five-year plan and results framework that describes the collective vision and response of the UN system to national development priorities. The office coordinates activities related to common programming including Agenda 2030, joint programmes, joint programming activities and development coordination work. This is done in conformity with the objectives and priorities of the Government, and the mandates and objectives of the United Nations agencies.

 

The Resident Coordinator in Eritrea

Ms. Valji has more than 25 years of experience in sustainable development, peace and security, gender, and human rights in the United Nations and civil society, with expertise in leading institutional reform processes and start-up initiatives, including two UN funds and a Security Council mechanism on women, peace and security.



Prior to this appointment, she served as the Global Coordinator of the Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence against Women and Girls, a 500 million euro flagship programme for the Sustainable Development Goals, and as a Senior Adviser in the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General.



Before that, Ms. Valji was the Acting Chief/ Deputy of the Peace and Security Section of UN Women where she led the organization’s work on peacekeeping, peace negotiations and the rule of law, and focused on country programming support and policy analysis and development. In 2015, she headed the Secretariat for the Global Study on the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1325, a comprehensive review requested by the Security Council on women, peace and security.



Before the UN, Ms. Valji worked in South Africa on issues of development, human rights, and peacebuilding. During this time she led the Africa-wide work on transitional justice of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. This involved managing partnerships with civil society, academia, experts, governments and the African Union. She founded and was the managing editor of the International Journal of Transitional Justice, and is the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook on Gender and Conflict.



Ms. Valji has a Masters in Political Science and International Relations and a Joint Diploma in Forced Migration Studies from Canada’s York University.

 

The Resident Coordinator's Team in Eritrea

Nahla

Nahla Valji

Resident Coordinator
valji@un.org