Kristine Blokhus has assumed her role as the new United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) country representative in Bangladesh, replacing Dr Asa Torkelsson.
Kristine, who is a national of Norway, brings over 20 years of experience in international development and humanitarian response.
In the past three years, she served as the UNFPA’s representative to the State of Palestine, leading the agency’s humanitarian response and development programming in sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, and youth and adolescent empowerment across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Before this, Kristine served as the deputy representative of the UNFPA in Nepal for nearly five years.
She previously worked with the UNFPA and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in different settings spanning South and South-East Asia, Central America and the Caribbean, the Balkans, and UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS.
Kristine started her UN career as a junior professional officer in Indonesia following the 2005 tsunami, where she focused on humanitarian response and gender-based violence.
Before joining the UN, she worked at the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and in research roles in academia and international development consulting firms in the UK and Norway.
Kristine holds a masters in development studies from the London School of Economics and a double bachelors in political science and French from the University of Warwick.
Source: United News of Bangladesh