New UN Resident Coordinator Appointed for Trinidad and Tobago

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Ms. Joanna Kazana-Wisniowiecki of Poland as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Trinidad and Tobago, with the host government’s approval. Based in Trinidad and Tobago, Ms. Kazana-Wisniowiecki will be heading the Multi-Country Office coordinating also UN development operations in Aruba, Curaçao, Suriname, and Sint Maarten. She takes up her post on June 5.

Ms. Joanna Kazana-Wisniowiecki has over 20 years of experience in international development cooperation. Prior to this appointment, she was the UN Resident Coordinator in the Republic of Belarus where she positioned the UN system as an impartial and neutral partner and substantive authority on sustainable development in the context of upper-middle income countries. She led the UN response to COVID-19 and supported the UN system’s action for refugees and migrants. Since the beginning of her tenure, she has strongly advocated for and collaborated closely with NGOs addressing human rights and sustainable development in Belarus.

Before that, Ms. Kazana-Wisniowiecki worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in New York, providing support to UNDP country offices in Europe and Central Asia and working closely with UNDP’s strategic partners, including the UN Member States’ missions in New York. She represented UNDP on the Steering Committee of UNDP-Russia Development Trust Fund and, together with the Department of Political Affairs , led the work of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Ukraine.

From 2005-2010, Ms. Kazana-Wisniowiecki served as UNDP Deputy Representative in Ukraine, and created one of UNDP's largest local development projects “Community Based Approach to Local Development in Ukraine”.

She began her professional career in Poland where she worked as a UNDP National Programme Officer in Warsaw, then as an international consultant for the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and as an Advisor on international programme development and harm reduction for the Soros Foundation. She has facilitated South-South cooperation and knowledge transfer on HIV/AIDS prevention and care.

Ms. Kazana-Wisniowiecki hold a Master’s degree in Economics and International Relations from the Warsaw School of Economics. She is married, has a son, and enjoys tennis, skiing, jazz music and nature walks with her dog.