Executive Director of Kofi Annan Foundation and Former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Mr. Alan Doss is Senior Political Advisor at the Kofi Annan Foundation. He is Former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He spent his entire professional life in the service of the United Nations working on peacekeeping, development and humanitarian assignments in Africa, Asia and Europe as well as at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

He was appointed, in 2007, by Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Head of the UN peace keeping mission (MONUC). Immediately prior to this assignment, he was the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Liberia and head of the UN mission (UNMIL). Moreover, Mr Doss had previously served as the Principal Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Côte d’Ivoire and deputy head of the United Nations Mission (ONUCI), as the Deputy UN Special Representative in Sierra Leone and deputy head of the UN Mission (UNAMSIL) while serving concurrently United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative. Until his appointment in Sierra Leone Mr Doss also held the position of Director of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG), where he managed the implementation of reforms aimed to improve the performance of UN operational activities around the world.

Mr Doss had previously served as United Nations Resident Coordinator and Regional Representative of the UNDP in Bangkok, Thailand and Director of the United Nations Border Relief Operation (UNBRO), in charge of United Nations assistance to hundreds of thousands of displaced Cambodians on the Thai-Cambodia border before their repatriation to Cambodia.

Mr Doss has written numerous articles on development, peace keeping and peace building. He delivered the 2009 Nelson Mandela Lecture on Africa at the Royal United Services Institute in London and the 2010 Count Folke Bernadotte Memorial Lecture on Protection and Peacekeeping at the United Nations Association of the United Kingdom. He has been a guest speaker and lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington D.C, the International Peace Institute in New York.