Secretary-General Appoints Mario Samaja of Italy as UN Resident Coordinator in Paraguay

The UN Secretary-General has appointed Mario Samaja of Italy as the UN Resident Coordinator in the Republic of Paraguay, with the host government’s approval.

Mr. Samaja has worked with the UN for over 15 years at the country and regional levels. He recently led the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Southern Africa Regional Resilience team, also serving as UN Resident Coordinator and UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Mauritania (2015-2018).

He has also held several leadership positions with FAO in Africa, Asia and Central Asia, including for emergency response.

Born in 1961, Mr. Samaja has a Master in Geological Sciences from the University of Milan, and a Post-graduate course on “Rural development in emerging countries” from the University of Padova in Italy. He speaks English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.