United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Nicole Flora Boni Kouassi of Côte d’Ivoire as the new Deputy Special Representative for the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH). She will also serve as Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in the country.
Ms. Boni Kouassi succeeds Ingeborg Ulrika Ulfsdotter Richardson of Sweden, whom the Secretary-General thanked for her “dedicated service and steadfast commitment” to the UN.
Bringing more than 22 years of United Nations experience, Ms. Boni Kouassi has built her career across development, peace and security, and humanitarian work. Since 2022, she has served as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Niger, where she also took on the role of Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim between 2023 and 2024. She previously led UNDP’s office in Burundi from 2019 to 2022 and held interim leadership as Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in 2021.
Her earlier career includes leadership roles as UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Djibouti and Niger, as well as Senior UN Coherence Specialist in New York.
Ms. Boni Kouassi holds a Doctorate in Medicine from Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan and a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States. She is fluent in both English and French, in addition to her native Baule.
