Omar Abdi is a Somali-

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

diplomat who serves as the Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

Education

Abdi has a Bachelor of Science in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

from the

Somali National University Somali National University (SNU) (, , ) is a national university in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Its campus grounds were located four kilometers from the Mogadishu International Airport (Aden Adde International Airport). It was establishe ...

in Mogadishu. He later received a doctoral degree in development economics and a master's in regional development planning, both from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Career

Abdi held several leadership positions in UNICEF including as Country Representative in Pakistan, Ghana and Liberia, Regional Director in the Middle East and North Africa, Comptroller and CFO, and Deputy Executive Director for Management, and Field Results. Since 2016, following an appointment by

United Nations Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was the South Korean minister ...

, Abdi has been serving as the Deputy Executive Director for programmes at UNICEF; he succeeded

Geeta Rao Gupta Geeta Rao Gupta (born 1956 in Mumbai, India) is a leader on gender, women's issues, and HIV/AIDS who had served as United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues. She previously served as executive director of the 3D Program for Gir ...

. In this capacity, he oversees UNICEF's global humanitarian and development programmes. In 2020, he was part of the selection committee that chose

José Manuel Barroso José Manuel Durão Barroso (; born 23 March 1956) is a Portuguese politician and law professor. He previously served from 2002 to 2004 as the List of Prime Ministers of Portugal, 114th prime minister of Portugal and from 2004–2014 as the 11 ...

as chair of

GAVI GAVI, officially Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (previously the GAVI Alliance, and before that the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) is a Public–private partnership, public–private global health partnership with the goal of incr ...

’s board.

Other activities

Global Partnership for Education The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is a multi-stakeholder partnership that aims to strengthen global education. Hosted by the World Bank, GPE is the world's only partnership dedicated solely to funding education in developing countries. ...

(GPE), Member of the Board of Directors *

Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Established in 2005, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) is the world’s largest alliance for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health and well-being, with over 1,400 partner organizations working together thro ...

(PMNCH), Member of the BoardBoard

(PMNCH).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdi, Omar 20th-century births Living people UNICEF people Canadian diplomats Somalian diplomats Somalian emigrants to Canada Canadian officials of the United Nations Somali National University alumni Cornell University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)