Filippo Grandi

Who is Filippo Grandi?

Filippo Grandi served as Deputy Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, appointed to his position by United Nations Secretary-General in 2005. In 2010, he was appointed as the Commissioner-General of the Agency by Ban Ki-moon.

Grandi joined in UNHCR in 1988 and has served in a variety of countries, including Sudan, Syria, Turkey and Iraq after the first Gulf War. He also headed a number of emergency operations including Kenya, Benin, Ghana, Liberia, the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa, Yemen and Afghanistan. Between 1996 and 1997, he was Field Coordinator for UNHCR and United Nations humanitarian activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the civil war. From 1997 to 2001, he worked in the Executive Office of the UNHCR in Geneva, as Special Assistant and then Chief of Staff.

Prior to his appointment as Deputy Commissioner-General, Grandi serves as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General responsible for political affairs at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan since 2004. From 2001 to 2004, he served as Chief of Mission of the United High Commissioner for Refugees.