The Resident Coordinator Office

The UN Resident Coordinator’s Office (UNRCO) supports the Deputy Representative of the Secretary-General, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in her efforts to improve the impact, efficiency and effectiveness of the UN’s joint operational activities for development in South Sudan, and to strategically position the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in support of national priorities, development strategies, and plans.

The UNRCO in South Sudan provides inter-agency coordination support to the UN Country Team (UNCT) and its various sub-teams (Program Management Team - PMT, Operations Management Team – OMT, UN Communications Group – UNCG and the PSEA task force).

The support includes strategic planning, program and operations management, policy guidance, data management and results reporting as well as knowledge management, advocacy and communications, all seeking to enhance UN coherence and improve overall program impact to better achieve development results.

The UN Resident Coordinator in South Sudan:

 Mr. Peter Van der Auweraet is the Chief of Mission in IOM South Sudan. He was appointed RC ai in May 2023, before being posted to South Sudan, Peter Van der Auweraert served as IOM Western Balkans Coordinator and Chief of Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina based in Sarajevo. He has over twenty years of international experience, holding leadership positions in humanitarian diplomacy, humanitarian assistance, peacebuilding, transitional justice and conflict-related land and property issues.

His previous roles include coordinating IOM’s response to the 2015-2016 European and Western Balkans Migrant and Refugee Crisis and overseeing IOM’s humanitarian and transition and recovery work in the region covered by the Organization’s Regional Office in Vienna, Austria. While Head of the Land, Property and Reparations Division at the IOM Headquarters in Geneva, he participated in peace making processes in Colombia, Iraq, Timor-Leste and the Philippines, amongst other countries, as senior advisor on reparations and land and property issues.

From 2003 to 2005, Peter served as Executive Director of Avocats Sans Frontières, an international NGO focusing on access to justice in post-conflict countries, and from 1999 to 2006 he held a Visiting Lectureship in International Public and Criminal Law at the University of Turku in Finland. Peter started his professional career in the private sector, working as in-house legal counsel at an international trading company in Lausanne, Switzerland.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Law from the University of London and a Law Degree from the University of Antwerp, Belgium. Peter is a Belgian national.

Meet the Team in the UN Resident Coordinator's Office in South Sudan

Peter Van der Auweraert

Peter Van der Auweraert

Chief of Mission/RC ai
PVANDERAUWERAERT@iom.int
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