Afshan Khan

Afshan Khan was appointed Director of Emergency Programmes in UNICEF in August 2014.

Immediately prior to this assignment, she served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Women for Women International (WfWI) from 2012 to 2014. In that role, she was responsible for setting the strategic vision and mobilizing the necessary resources for women rebuilding their lives after war.

Prior to joining WfWI, Ms Khan had a career spanning more than 25 years with the United Nations, mainly with UNICEF, most recently as Director of UNICEF's then Public-Sector Alliances and Resource Mobilization Office (PARMO) from 2008 to 2012. During her tenure in PARMO, she led a team that was responsible for mobilizing more than $10 billion for UNICEF’s programmes from both governments and foundation partners.

Ms. Khan also served as Associate Director for the Eastern and Southern Africa Region based in Johannesburg, South Africa from 2006 to 2008.

From 2004 to 2006, Ms. Khan was Deputy Director, Emergency Programmes where she supported UNICEF country offices responsible for responding to the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Pakistan earthquake, Niger and Darfur crises and other emergencies.

From 2001 to 2004, Ms. Khan served in senior positions with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee for Humanitarian Affairs (IASC) in Geneva, the Secretary-General’s Office and the United Nations Development Group (UNDG).

From 1997 to 2000, Ms Khan was the UNICEF Representative to Jamaica where she was responsible for the overall planning, implementation and monitoring of the Government of Jamaica/UNICEF programme of cooperation. She was also acting Resident Coordinator for the United Nations in Jamaica throughout 1999.

From 1986 to 1997, Ms. Khan held a number of positions at UNICEF headquarters and in the field, including acting Chief of Operations for UNICEF Eastern Zaire during the peak of the civil war, Africa desk officer in Programme Division in New York, Programme Planning and Monitoring Officer in Mozambique, as well as Monitoring and Evaluation Officer in Kenya.

Prior to joining UNICEF Ms. Khan worked as a consultant to the Canadian International Development Agency (1984-1986).

Ms. Khan was born in Hyderabad, India and holds both Canadian and British citizenship. She has a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, Washington, and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from McGill University, Montreal. She speaks English, French, Urdu, and Portuguese.