Kabul, Afghanistan, May 2019 — On the first day of Ramadan, an auspicious day, Mr. Abdallah Al Dardari started his new role as Resident Representative for United Nations Development Programme in Afghanistan. Over the next few days and weeks, Mr. Al Dardari will be meeting government officials and citizens to find out how UNDP can best support the people and the Government of Afghanistan.

In his new role, he will take the Administrator’s vision of a new UNDP forward, consolidating its position as the integrator for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), supporting the Government, and working for the people of Afghanistan.

Born in Damascus, Syria, Mr. Al Dardari, is a well-established change leader and reformer, who is focused on economic development and conflict related political economy in MENA and Asia.

Before joining UNDP he served as Senior Advisor on Reconstruction at the World Bank MENA Vice Presidency, leading a large analytical program to design and pilot a new approach to reconstruction in MENA conflict countries. Before joining the World Bank, he served as Deputy Executive Secretary and Chief Economist of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). There he focused his work the political economy of the Arab Spring and the imperatives of peaceful and durable post conflict social contract in the region.

In his home country Syria, Al Dardari was dubbed ‘The Reform Engineer’ during his more than seven year tenure as Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Chair of the State Planning Commission. He led the transformational 10^th Five Year Development Plan and the Economic Reform Program 2005-2010. Abdallah resigned his post at the start of the Syrian conflict in March 2011.

Al Dardari studied economics and international relations at Richmond College, the University of Southern California, and at the London School of Economics. Currently he is a Post-Doctoral research fellow at IUAV Architecture University in Venice, Italy, working on the political economy of urban reconstruction in conflict countries.