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Inés Alberdi appointed as Executive Director of UNIFEM

United Nations — The UNDP Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary-General as well as with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Consultative Committee, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Inés Alberdi of Spain to the position of Executive Director of UNIFEM. Ms. Alberdi replaces Ms. Noeleen Heyzer who is now the Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

The selection process was comprehensive and extensive, taking into account both the challenges facing UNIFEM as such and the broader requirements of strengthening gender-focused work throughout the UN system, something to which the Secretary-General attaches great importance.

Ms. Alberdi brings with her over 25 years of professional experience on issues related to gender and development and in politics. From 2003-2007 she was a Deputy in the Madrid Assembly. Prior to that she served as an expert in the European Union’s Equal Opportunities Unit. She has also served as the Director of the Research Department in the Spanish Sociological Research Center and as a Senior Adviser on women in development at the Inter-American Development Bank. She has published several books on the social status of women.

Ms. Alberdi holds a PhD in sociology from the Complutense University of Madrid, where she has also worked as a professor of sociology. She is married with two children.

About UNIFEM: UNIFEM is the women's fund at the United Nations. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies to foster women's empowerment and gender equality. UNIFEM focuses in particular on reducing feminized poverty, ending violence against women, reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls, and achieving gender equality in democratic governance in times of peace as well as war.