Our Team in Haiti

On 02 July 2025, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced the appointment of Carlos G. Ruiz Massieu of Mexico as his new Special Representative for Haiti and Head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH).

Mr. Ruiz Massieu brings to this position over 30 years of experience in public service and diplomacy, both in bilateral and multilateral contexts. As Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Colombia since 2019, he led the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, monitoring the implementation of the Peace Agreement between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People’s Army (FARC-EP) guerrilla. He provided good offices and political leadership in the recent peace dialogues of the Government of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, as well as with other illegal armed groups. Prior to this assignment, he served as the Chairperson of the General Assembly’s Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions from 2013 to 2018.

A distinguished career diplomat, Mr. Ruiz Massieu served in different positions in the Mexican Government prior to joining the United Nations, including at the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations. Mr. Ruiz Massieu is a graduate in law from the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, and holds a Master of Arts in politics from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom, with a focus on Latin America. In addition to Spanish, he speaks English and French.

Ms./Dr. Nicole Boni Kouassi has over 25 years of international professional experience, particularly in Africa, in countries with diverse development contexts.

Before her appointment in October 2025 as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Resident Coordinator, and Humanitarian Coordinator of the United Nations in Haiti, she had served as UNDP Resident Representative in Niger since September 2022. During that period, she also acted as interim Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for one year.

Ms./Dr. Nicole Boni Kouassi has also held the position of UNDP Resident Representative in Burundi, as well as Deputy Resident Representative in Niger and Djibouti. Previously, she worked with UNDP in New York and Nigeria, and with UNAIDS in Côte d’Ivoire.

A strategic leader with proven ability to coordinate development, humanitarian, and transformational policies and programs at both central and decentralized levels, Ms./Dr. Nicole Boni Kouassi is an Ivorian national. She holds a Doctorate in Medicine and a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University in the United States. She is fluent in French and English.

Ms. Lefebvre, a Canadian national with a background in political science, joined the World Bank in 2009 as a Sr. Public Sector Specialist in the Africa VPU based in Washington after a career with the Government of Canada and short experiences the World Food Program (WFP) and INGOs. She subsequently held the position of Sr. Public Sector Specialist in various countries, including Mozambique, Madagascar and Morocco. Her most recent assignment was as World Bank Resident Representative for Guinea Bissau in West Africa.

Mr. Ariel Pino became Coordinator of the International Labour Office in Haiti in November 2022. Between 2016 and 2022, he held the position of Social Protection and OSH Specialist.

In this role, it provided expert advice and guidance on the application and implementation of international labour standards, guidelines and codes of practice relating to social protection and OSH in order to formulate legislation, national policies and plans on the effective implementation of social protection systems, including respect for occupational safety and health at the national and subregional levels.

It has provided policy advice and technical assistance to government authorities and social partners in the Caribbean region on the design and implementation of policies, strategies, programmes and mechanisms to extend the safeguards included in the Social Protection Floors Recommendation (No. 202). 2012, the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102), and other ILO Conventions relating to social security.

In 2014 and 2016, Ariel worked as a Regional Coordinator for the International Social Security Association. In this position, he: (i) Strengthen relationships with ISSA members and regional organizations in the Americas and Africa in order to provide high value to members, retain and grow the number of ISSA members; (ii) Coordinate the development of the ISSA regional structures in the Americas and Africa regions, as well as the establishment and implementation of work plans for each of these structures, in order to ensure the regional dimension of ISSA activities, in accordance with the needs expressed by constituents in these regions; (iii) To advise and support the Secretary-General on strategic and political aspects of relations with constituents in the Americas and Africa, as well as on political and planning issues with a regional dimension; (iv) Manage the organization of the ISSA Regional Forums on Social Security for the Americas and Africa.

Mr. Royer has been serving as Representative of OHCHR in Haiti since September 2021.

He has spent his professional career working in human rights and conflict prevention with the United Nations. Since 2008, he has been serving in UN Peacekeeping missions.

Mr. Royer was the Deputy to the Director of the MINUSMA Human Rights Division in Mali between 2015 and 2018. He served in the same capacity in South Soudan for UNMISS, between 2018 and 2021. He was also the Human Rights advisor to the MINUSTAH Police Commissioner in Haiti, a position he held from 2010 to 2012.

Dr. Christian Mouala as Director of the UNAIDS Country Office effective June 1, 2021.

A Congolese national (Congo-Brazzaville) with over 20 years of multi-country experience, including over 10 years with UNAIDS, in cooperation and partnership in the basic social sectors and sustainable development, global health and HIV in particular.

Dr. Mouala brings to the position of UNAIDS Country Director a good knowledge of the functioning of UNAIDS and the requirements of the tasks related to this position. He has successfully held this position in the past. He understands the challenges of bringing together the added value of all UN organizations to advise and support UNAIDS.

Dabagai Dabagai was born in Cameroon where she grew up. She studied at universities from 2002 to 2009 in Yaoundé, Aix-en-Provence and Brussels, obtaining a Master's degree in Classical Philosophy, a Master's degree in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action and a Master's degree in Law and Humanitarian Action.

In 2009, she became involved in humanitarian action with her first post in Chad with Médecins sans Frontières. In the years that followed, Dabagai actively supported humanitarian and development actions for Action Against Hunger's operations in Mauritania, Liberia during the Ebola epidemic (2014-2015), and the Central African Republic during the September 2015 crisis, and worked on responses to the Lake Chad Basin crisis.

From August 2017, Dabagai returned to Chad as Country Director for 2 years before heading Action Against Hunger's country offices in Mali and Nigeria until September 2022.

During all these years, Dabagai has been heavily involved in issues of ethics and the management of worker safety in the aid environment. She is also an avid reader of detective literature.

In November 2022, Dabagai was appointed Director of the UNOPS Office in Haiti.

Fabien joined as UNEP Haiti Representative and Head of Office in September 2019. He also serves UNEP as Focal Point for Cuba and the Dominican Republic, and as Coordinator for Disasters and Conflicts in Latin America and the Caribbean.

He has 22 years of professional experience, including 7 years in the private sector and 15 years with the United Nations and the World Bank. Fabien started his career working as a consultant in management for large private companies in Paris (Orange, Areva), and as a senior consultant leading the reform of the financial sector in Madagascar and a program of SMEs portfolio de-risking in the banking sector for the World Bank and IFC. Fabien joined UNDP in September 2009 as Chief Technical Advisor for the UN-REDD Programme in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. He then worked as UNDP Regional Advisor of forests and climate finance for Africa, and as Senior Programme Advisor in Vietnam to implement the collaborative programme on REDD+ for UNDP, FAO and UNEP. Before joining UNEP in Haiti, he worked as Lead Technical Advisor for the World Bank in Vietnam, supporting the Government with the signature of the Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement under the UNFCCC REDD+ Mechanism.

Fabien is citizen of France, with Kreol origins from Reunion Island. He holds a M.Sc in Management and a Master in European Business from the EDHEC Business School, and a PhD certificate from the Center of Strategic and Diplomatic Studies of Paris, with thesis on the UN role in climate diplomacy. Fabien set up two environmental NGOs in 2004 and 2008 and volunteered for over 10 years in Indonesia and Madagascar on community-based sustainable management of mangroves and coral reefs.

Gabriel Gualano de Godoy has nearly twenty years of humanitarian experience across Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Africa. He is currently serving as Head of UNHCR’s National Office in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Previously, he was UNHCR Representative in North Macedonia (2023–2025) and Chief of Mission in the Dominican Republic (2018–2023). He also coordinated UNHCR’s protection team in Mexico and held various protection-related positions in Brazil, Uganda, and Costa Rica.

Gabriel holds a PhD in Law, specializing in legal theory and philosophy, from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Brazil. He also earned a master’s degree in law, Anthropology and Society from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK, and a Bachelor of Laws from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Brazil. He is a licensed attorney registered with the Bar Association of the Federal District of Brazil.

Geeta Narayan, an internationally renowned expert, joined UNICEF in Haiti in September 2024. With over two decades of experience within the organization, she brings unique expertise in strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, and program development. Previously, Geeta played a key role in strengthening UNICEF's organizational culture globally, promoting diversity and inclusion. Her commitment to children's rights has taken her to many countries, where she has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the most vulnerable.

Before assuming this position, Geeta served as Senior Advisor on Organizational Culture for UNICEF in New York starting in June 2019. Her assignments have also taken her to New York (2001-2004), Vietnam (2007-2010), South Africa (2010-2012), Jordan (2012-2016), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2016 to June 2019).

Mr. Grégoire Goodstein is the IOM Chief of Mission for Haiti since June 28th, 2024.

He joined the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 2000 as Chief of Mission in Croatia (2000-2006), followed by a posting as Chief of Mission in Serbia (2006-2012), Chief of Mission in Haiti (2012-2016) and Chief of the Donor Relations Division at IOM Headquarters (2017-2023). He has worked in a number of crisis and post-crises settings including with Action Against Hunger from 1992-1996 in Somalia, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Burundi and the former-Yugoslavia, and with Louis Berger Ltd in the Philippines (1999-2000). Much of his work has focused on food security, security sector reform and migration management.

He holds a Master’s degree on Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor’s degree in International Agricultural Development from the University of California – Davis.

He is a French national.

Marie Goretti Nduwayo joined UN WOMEN Haiti in 2022. She joined the UN System in 1998 when UNIFEM (today UN women) decided to open its office in Burundi mainly to support UN coordination on Gender Equality and Empowerment of women as well as women participation in peace negotiations and post conflict process management. Since then, Marie Goretti occupied different senior leadership positions from Country Programme Manager (CPM) covering Burundi and Comoros till 2008; to country Representative in Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire respectively from 2008 and 2017 respectively. Gender responsive market, enactment of national gender policies, settlement of women IDPs and returnees in their original areas as well as gender audits of key Ministries have been some of the key achievements in the two countries.

Marie Goretti comes in Haiti after four years as the head of UN Women liaison to African Union (AU) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) mainly coordinating continental initiatives targeting women and girls, including women peace and security agenda and women political leadership, gender in humanitarian actions. Marie Goretti also took on with success several international interim leaderships positions, the latest being as UNWOMEN country representative for Ethiopia.

Prior to the UN, Marie Goretti was the 1st coordinator of the Umbrella of Burundi women Organization; a responsibility she was assigned to after having represented the Burundi youth at the 4th world Conference on women, peace and development which took place in Beijing, China in 1995. Marie Goretti started her professional career as the technical team leader in a UN Habitat programme training women to build their own house.

Marie Goretti Nduwayo holds a Master’s / Engineering in Urban planning and certificates in gender and development, Gender and leadership, gender, and Governance, Gender, Peace and security among others. She’s a mother of 29-27-25- and 21-years old children. Ms Goretti Nduwayo is bilingual English and French. She speaks Swahili and Kirundi her mother’s tongue.

Dr. Traoré Modibo was born on January 11, 1967, in Mali. Newly appointed Head of OCHA in Haiti, he has held this position in Niger (twice), Zimbabwe, Côte d'Ivoire, and Cameroon from 2008 to 2024.

Dr. Traoré has also worked with OCHA in various field offices in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from 2008 to 2013. He possesses over 20 years of professional experience within the United Nations system. Prior to joining the UN, he worked with several international NGOs in the DRC, Burundi, South Sudan, Somalia, and France from 1997 to 2002. He has held various roles as a physician, health and nutrition coordinator with Action Against Hunger, and country director for a British NGO called Children Aid Direct.

Dr. Traoré has more than 25 years of experience in Africa in humanitarian assistance, recovery, and peacebuilding, and he possesses expertise in public health. He holds a doctorate in general medicine, a degree in tropical medicine from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, and a Master's degree in public health from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Dr. Traoré has published works on nutrition, maternal and child health, as well as cardiology. He holds both Malian and Belgian nationality.

Mr. Nahuel Arenas Garcia has been Chief of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction- Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean since 2023. He had served as the Deputy Chief of UNDRR ROAC since 2017 and brings more than 20 years of experience leading humanitarian, Disaster Risk Reduction and development cooperation programs in different countries in Latin America & Caribbean, Africa and the Asia Pacific region. During the last 20 years, he has led humanitarian assistance interventions, DRR programming and development cooperation in different countries in Latin America & Caribbean, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Before joining UNDRR, Nahuel occupied the position of Director for Humanitarian Programs and Policy for OXFAM USA. He has also worked for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Action Against Hunger (ACF), consulted for UN-Habitat leading learning processes around DRR programming and contributed to many academic programs including the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative Course: Humanitarian Response to Conflict and Disasters. He has a background in Public Policy (FLACSO) and International Politics (SOAS, University of London) as well as degrees in Crisis Management (Universidad Complutense of Madrid).

Oscar Barreneche, of Colombian nationality, obtained his degree as Doctor in Medicine and Surgery from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. He holds a Master’s Degree in Health Policy Planning by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical (LSHTM) & London School of Economics (LSE), London England. Dr. Barreneche also received complementary training in the care of populations in precarious situations, health management and leadership, field epidemiology and tropical medicine from Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations College and the University of Paris V in Paris - France.

In the working field, he served as a volunteer doctor for Doctors Without Borders in Uganda and Cambodia and has been an Advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) on issues of transfusion safety, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), emergencies and pandemics and health policies, in Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), Indonesia, Liberia and Timor - Leste. Since 2016, Dr. Barreneche joined the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) team as Representative in Guatemala. In November 2021, Dr. Barreneche was appointed as PAHO/WHO Representative in Ecuador. He is currently PAHO/WHO Representative in Haiti, since October 2023.

Dr. Barreneche is a health physician who, throughout his career, has dedicated his professional and personal career to the service of the most vulnerable populations in the countries where he has served, with special attention to refugees, indigenous populations and LGBTI. The fight against HIV/AIDS and the planning and development of health policies are among the issues that Dr. Barreneche is passionate about. He also has broad experience in the mobilization of resources for the financing of health programs.

Samir Bejaoui is Country Director for the Republic of Haiti. Since 2010, Bejaoui managed several portfolios in a wide range of contexts from fragile and post-conflict to lower-middle income countries. He has an extensive experience on public procurement value chain development and farmers organizations support.

Prior to joining the Programme Management Department in IFAD, Bejaoui served as Policy and Information Management Officer in the Coordination Team of the UN High Level Task Force on Global Food and Nutrition Security.

Further to promoting in-country coordination and alignment mechanisms for UN Coordination Teams, he supported national capacity to map food security and nutrition actions at country level.

His earlier positions include Project Officer at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Advisor to the Egyptian Embassy to the Holy See and Information and Knowledge Management Officer at the International Development Law Organization (IDLO).

Bejaoui is a Computer Science Engineer and holds two master’s degrees, one in International Relations and European Integration from the University of Liege, Belgium and another in European Interdisciplinary Studies from the College of Europe, Poland.

He has received specialized training in public procurement and is UNDP/CIPS certified.

Wanja Kaaria-Ndoho is Representative and Country Director for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Haiti.

She has more than 26 years’ experience with WFP, most recently serving as Representative and Country Director in Cameroon and Sao Tome & Principe country office (2020-2024), and before that she occupied the same role in The Gambia (2018-2020). She served as Deputy Director of the WFP office to the African Union and UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2014 –2018) and as Deputy Country Director of the WFP office in Senegal (2011-2014). As a specialist in monitoring and assessments, Kaaria-Ndoho worked as Head of Food Security Monitoring at WFP headquarters in Rome, Italy (2008-2011) as well as Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for southern Africa based in Johannesburg, South Africa (2002-2008). She additionally served in a variety of other capacities since joining the organization in 1997 including posts in South Sudan and Tanzania.

Prior to joining the United Nations, she served with the Government of Kenya for six years. Kaaria-Ndoho is a Kenyan national and holds an Msc. in Development Planning and Management from the University of Dortmund, Germany and University of Science & Technology Kumasi, Ghana. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Land Economics from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

After serving for five months as Acting Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Haiti, Mr. Xavier Michon was officially appointed Resident Representative in April 2024.

Before taking up his assignment in Haiti, Xavier Michon served as Deputy Executive Secretary at the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the only UN entity with an impact investment mandate and the capacity to provide loans and guarantees to public and private entities in least developed countries. During his tenure at UNCDF, he significantly expanded the organization’s impact investment activities, tripling its resources and global staff.

A national of France and Bolivia, Xavier Michon has had a long career with UNDP prior to joining UNCDF. He held various leadership positions, including Country Director in Burundi and Guatemala, Deputy Resident Representative in Peru, and worked at headquarters in New York, collaborating with the Regional Bureaux for Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, as Programme Advisor. Before joining UNDP, he worked as Project Management Officer within the Africa and Environment Programme Divisions of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). He also gained experience as a Financial Derivatives Broker at Iberagentes / Crédit Lyonnais Securities in Spain, and as Head of the Franco-Dominican Chamber of Commerce, where he promoted business and investment opportunities in the Dominican Republic.

Xavier Michon holds a Master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in New York and a Master’s in Business Management from the Institut Supérieur de Gestion (ISG) in Paris. He is fluent in French, English, Spanish, and Italian, and has basic knowledge of Portuguese.