Our Team in Kyrgyz Republic

Ms. Grawe brings more than 20 years of experience in international cooperation, sustainable development and peace and security with the United Nations and other international and bilateral organizations.

Prior to her appointment as UN Resident Coordinator, Ms. Grawe served for three and a half years with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, first as Deputy Chief Monitor leading the Mission's work in the fields of human rights, gender, environment and dialogue facilitation, since April this year as Acting Head of Mission.

Earlier, she served with UN Political and Peace Operations in various leadership and senior advisory roles in Afghanistan, Haiti and for the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen (OSESGY). In Afghanistan, she led the Regional Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission (UNAMA) in Herat and was the Head of the Mission's Analysis and Planning Unit. In the OSESGY, she served as Senior Peacebuilding Officer after having advised the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) as Senior Special Assistant for nearly four years.

Ms. Grawe also worked with the German Government at the Embassy in Pakistan as Counsellor for Economic Cooperation and Development and as Desk Officer for Afghanistan in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Bonn, in addition to positions with the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) at its Headquarters in Germany and in Afghanistan.

Ms. Antje Grawe holds a master’s degree in Political Science and History from the University in Trier, Germany. She also holds a certificate in political science from the Institut d’Études Politiques in Bordeaux, France, and studied at Universities in Krakow and Warsaw in Poland.

Dr Amir Piric works for UNESCO since 2004, initially as Head of Evaluation Office, within the Internal Oversight Service (IOS) of UNESCO and lately as Chief Programme Coordinator at UNESCO Institute for Lifelong-learning in Hamburg, Germany. He has been appointed as Director (Officer-in-Charge) for the UNESCO Almaty Regional Office as of 1 April 2023.

Before joining UNESCO, Dr Amir Piric worked for various institutions such as the Nordic Institute for Studies on Innovation based in Oslo in 2004, and the Government of New Zealand from 1996 to 2004. He holds a PhD in Public Administration as well as s Masters in European Society, Science and Technology from Roskilde University (Denmark).

Dr Piric holds dual citizenship (New Zealand and Serbia).

Prior to his current assignment, Liviu led a WHO unit in WHE at HQ (2020-2023) that orchestrated simulation exercises and emergency response reviews. Prior to that Liviu served WHO in Myanmar (2013-2014), Sierra Leone (2014-215), and Thailand (2014-2020).

From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020 Dr. Vedrasco served as COVID-19 Coordination Liaison for Asia Pacific in Bangkok. At the peak of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone (11/2014 – 3/2015) Dr. Vedrasco coordinated the WHO emergency response operation that helped end the Ebola epidemic.

Prior to WHO, Liviu held leadership roles with UN agencies, philanthropies, and NGOs including Chief of Party for the USAID PREPARE pandemic preparedness project in D.C. (2009-2011); UN Pandemic Readiness Adviser with UNOCHA, Dakar (2007-2009); Health Adviser with the International Rescue Committee, Thailand (2004-2007); Country Director with the International Medical Corps, Georgia (2002-2004); Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe with Carelift International, PA, USA (1999-2001) and Programs Director with the Open Society Foundations, Moldova (1994-1997).

Dr. Vedrasco was awarded a Master of Public Health by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (1999) and a Medical Doctor degree by the Moldova State University of Medicine and Pharmacy (1996). He is fluent in English, Russian, and French in addition to his native Romanian.

Dr. Patrick Goettner works in the Technical Cooperation Section of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and has more than 7 years of experience working on inter-agency coordination and the implementation of trade and development programmes in different countries around the globe.

In the past, he worked as UNCTAD’s Regional Coordinator in Samoa for a regional trade and transparency project in the Pacific region. Prior to that he served in the Department of Environment of UNIDO working on programmes with a focus on environmental sustainability issues, green industry, as well as e-waste management.

He holds a Master’s degree in Business Chemistry from the University of Muenster in Germany and a PhD in Economics from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany.

Dr Syed Sadiq brings over 20 years’ senior level experience serving with the United Nations on global policy issues and programme management on gender equality, human rights, population and development. He has been working with the UN Women since its inception and since held the positions of Deputy Regional Program Director in the Southern Africa Regional Office, Country Representative in Iraq, Deputy Country Director for Afghanistan, Regional Program Manager, Ending Violence against Women and Girls of the UN Women East & Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) and has led the EU-funded Spotlight Initiative Stream 1 in the region and most recently, Country Program Manager for UN Women in Somalia. In his earlier career, Mr. Syed held various assignments with the United Nations (OHCHR and UNFPA) in Ethiopia, Eritrea, East Timor, India, Liberia and Sudan. He served at the National Commission for Women, Government of India and also as a faculty at the Indian Law Institute-India, visiting fellow at the Clark University and also contributed to the fellow’s paper of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government-USA.

Mr. Syed is the exponent of the ‘Coordinated Responses Approach (CRA) in Addressing GBV’ in 1997 and received awards at the international and national level for contribution to women’s rights. He has authored and co-authored several publications on human rights and gender. He holds LL.M. in International Human Rights Law and PhD in Women’s Rights Law. He is a national of India.

Freya von Groote brings 25 years of diverse operational and leadership experience from the United Nations, the inter-governmental and non-governmental sector. She has served in Iraq, Georgia, Armenia, Liberia/West Africa and in HQ positions in Vienna and New York, managing complex development, humanitarian and corporate partnership portfolios.

She has been appointed Director of the UNOPS Austria Multi-Country Office (AUMCO) in 2019, leading a team of professionals supporting UNOPS’ work in Central Asia, Western Balkans, the South Caucasus, Turkiye, as well as on Austria based partnerships.

Freya holds an MScEcon in International Politics from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and a BAhons in History and Russian from Trinity College Dublin.

Mr. Andrey Seleznev started his duty as the Head of the UNODC Programme Office in the Kyrgyz Republic in 2018.
He brings more than 25 years of experience in leadership and management, fight against crime, illicit drugs, and terrorism, and holds a profound knowledge of Kyrgyzstan and the Central Asian region.
Prior to his appointment to the UNODC, Mr. Andrey Seleznev served as the head of the department in the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation (Financial intelligence). In 2012 was appointed as a Deputy Executive Secretary of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG). In this position, Mr. Seleznev strengthened national anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML / CFT) regimes in Central Asia countries. He devoted over ten years to fighting corruption through AML/CFT activities.
Mr. Seleznev has led several review programs to assess Central Asian states' compliance with the international AML/CFT standards, including mutual evaluations of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, coordinated the work of the EAG on combating crime and terrorism with the UN CTC, UNODC, OSCE, CSTO, RATS SCO, and ATC CIS.
Earlier, Mr. Seleznev worked in the region with crisis/emergency response throughout his career. From 1999 to 2001, he took part in the peace support operation on the territory of Kosovo * based on UN Security Council Resolution 1244.
Mr. Seleznev held a Master's Degree in Social and Behavioural Science from the Russian State Social University, where he studied human resource management. He also received additional education in project management at the Moscow State Technical University, named after N. Bauman.

Mr. Dumitru Lipcanu was appointed to UNHCR Representation to Central Asia in Almaty, Kazakhstan in October 2020. Having joined UNHCR in 2010, over his career, Mr. Lipcanu has contributed in various capacities to the protection of refugees and internally displaced persons’ rights in different operations, including emergency and protracted situations in Moldova, South Sudan, Ukraine, and Jordan. Mr. Lipcanu’s areas of expertise include, inter alia, operations management, community-based protection, support to socio-economic empowerment of forcibly displaced and stateless populations, refugee integration, humanitarian interagency cooperation, emergency response coordination. Prior to UNHCR, Mr. Lipcanu worked for International Organization for Migration (IOM), preceded by employment in international companies in Romania and Belgium. Mr. Lipcanu is married with two children and graduated with a BSc Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova in 1997, followed by several internships in USA and Switzerland. He is fluent in English, French, Russian and Romanian languages.

Mr. Kojiro Nakai, a national of Japan, has over 20-year experience of working in WFP. Before coming to the Kyrgyz Republic, Mr. Nakai worked as Deputy Emergency Coordinator for the Cox’s Bazar operation, WFP Bangladesh. Mr. Nakai also served in several management positions in WFP, including Head of Office in Pakistan, Sudan and Myanmar, as well as Donor Relations Officer at Headquarters in Rome, Regional Bureau in Johannesburg and Liaison Office in Tokyo. Before joining WFP in 2001, Mr. Nakai worked in the Japanese private sector, as well as the Japanese embassy in China. Mr. Nakai has a Master’s degree in Public and International Affairs from University of Pittsburgh, USA. He is married with two daughters.

Mr. Mirlan Mamyrov represents UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan since September 2015 and works in the area of peacebuilding, conflict prevention, and political analysis with focus on dialogue, mediation and human rights. Prior to this appointment Mr. Mamyrov served as the Project Manager of the Peacebuilding Fund Secretariat in the Kyrgyz Republic. He gained professional work experience in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic (1999-2001), OSCE mission to Croatia (2001-2003) and UN system (2003-2017).

Mr. Oleg Guchgeldiyev, a professional with broad experience in climate change, environmental strategic planning and biodiversity conservation, joined FAO in 2016 as regional coordinator for development of a large-scale project for Central Asian countries and Türkiye on sustainable land management. Since 2018, he has been serving as FAO Representative in Tajikistan.

Before joining FAO, Mr. Oleg Guchgeldiyev, a national of Turkmenistan, worked with various international financial institutions and development agencies, including the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the German Agency for International Cooperation, and the European Union’s Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States programme.

He has wide experience in Central Asia and the Caspian Sea region, and his technical experience includes the economic valuation of ecosystem services, capacity building, strategic and rural development. He holds a master’s degree in public economic management. FAO Representative in the Kyrgyz Republic

Mr. Samir Bejaoui is Country Director for the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Moldova. Since 2010, Bejaoui managed several portfolios in a wide range of contexts from fragile and post-conflict to lower-middle income countries. He has an extensive experience on public procurement, value chain development and farmers organizations support.

Mr. Samman Jung Thapa joined as UNICEF Representative in the Kyrgyz Republic since April 2024
Prior to this assignment Mr. Samman J. Thapa worked as UNICEF Regional Adviser for Social Policy and Social Protection in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region based in Amman, Jordan since July 2019. In this role, he was responsible for strategic and technical leadership of UNICEF’s regional agenda on Child Poverty, Social Protection and Public Finance covering 20 countries spanning both humanitarian response and national systems strengthening.
Mr. Thapa joined UNICEF as a Social and Economic Policy Analyst in 2008 to help shape UNICEF’s response to the effects of the Global Economic Crisis on families and children in the East Asia Pacific Region. Subsequently, he worked in Cambodia and Viet Nam to help strengthen social sector planning and budgeting capacities at both national and sub-national levels. From 2015 to 2019, he was Chief of Social Policy and Child Rights Monitoring at UNICEF Myanmar leading technical assistance and capacity building to implement the first ever government-led social cash transfers, improve national/sub-national systems on data, birth registration, disability certification, and strengthen social sector budgeting (health, education, social protection). Prior to joining UNICEF, he worked for brief stints with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and UNDP. Mr. Samman J. Thapa is a national of Nepal and the proud father of two children. He holds a MA in International Economics and International Development from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, and a BA in International Relations from Webster University.

Ms. Aidai Kurmanova started her assignment as the Head of Central Asia Office in Almaty on 2nd February 2019. She has 21 years of experience in the field of sustainable development. Prior to joining UNEP, she worked as the State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic for five years. Her main areas of expertise include design and implementation of policies on sustainable economic development. She developed strategic documents on green economy, e-governance, small and medium enterprise. She led the process of nationalizing the Sustainable Development Goals in the Kyrgyz Republic. She has significant practical work experience with the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic in improving the environment for business and has promoted draft laws on economic growth. She holds Master degrees on Development Economics from International University of Japan and Public Governance from the Academy of Management under the President of Kyrgyz Republic.

Ms. Solovieva has been appointed as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in the Kyrgyz Republic in August 2023. She brings over 25 years of experience working with the UN across countries of Asia and the Pacific, Europe, other regions, and at Headquarters.
Prior to joining UNDP Kyrgyzstan, Ms. Solovieva served as UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Belarus from 2019 to August 2023, leading the UNDP development mandate and providing integrated support for SDG achievement in the country. Ms. Solovieva supported digital transformation, green economic transition, inclusive employment generation, climate and environment resource management, gender equality, and health system strengthening, bringing international knowledge and expertise.
During 2018-2019 Ms. Solovieva was the Chief of the External Relations and Communications Section at the United Nations Volunteers in Bonn, where she advised key stakeholders on UNV global agenda on volunteerism for SDGs and led strategic partnerships with Member States, inter-governmental, nongovernmental, and financial institutions, civil society, academia, media, and the private sector. Since 2014 Ms. Solovieva managed five global programmes on volunteer infrastructure, peace, youth, basic social services, and community resilience at the United Nations Volunteers. She led its Regional Offices in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
From 2011 to 2014 Ms. Solovieva served as the Deputy Country Director (Programme) at UNDP in the Republic of India. She delivered development support services, and measures to strengthen national capacities, provided policy advice, and coordinated the preparation of key UN and UNDP frameworks and programmes contributing to national development priorities including governance, human development, social protection, livelihoods, disaster risk reduction, HIV, inclusion, and others.
From 2003 to 2011 Ms. Solovieva held several positions at UNDP Headquarters including Programme Specialist in the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, and Management Specialist in the Bureau of Management. Ms. Solovieva started her career in Laos as UNDP Small-Grant Programme Coordinator, Head of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in that country, and served as a United Nations Volunteer on the ground.
Ms. Solovieva holds a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Colorado in Denver, a Master of Oriental Studies, and a Bachelor of Oriental and African Studies degree from Moscow State University, Institute of Asian and African Studies. She speaks Russian, English, French, Thai, and Lao languages.

Mrs. Moldobaeva started her career at IOM in 2001 and has advanced in her career at IOM. Since 2002 she has been acting as an Officer-in-Charge at IOM Office in Kyrgyzstan and since 2010, she has in parallel assumed a position of the Regional Coordinator on Counter-Trafficking program in Central Asia.

Ms. Indira Kadyrkanova holds MS in Economics (Texas A&M University, USA), MBA (Academy of Management under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic), Diploma of Graduate Course in Law (the Kyrgyz State National Juridical Academy), Diploma of Graduate Course in Mathematics (Kyrgyz State University). Worked in projects of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, USAID, SECO, EU, UN agencies. Has more than twenty years project management experience in development programmes in various sectors of the Kyrgyz economy, i.e. financial, agricultural, trade, gender equality.

Ms. Matilda Bogner has worked in the UN system since 2006. Before coming to Central Asia, Ms. Bogner headed the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine for 4 yearsThis is her second appointment as the head of the Regional Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Central Asia. Previously, she also headed the Regional Offices of OHCHR in the Pacific region and in South-East Asia. She also headed the Human Rights, Transitional Justice and Rule of Law Division of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya and was Senior Human Rights Advisor for the UN in Belarus. Prior to that, she worked on human rights for nine years in the Europe and Central Asia region and speaks Russian fluently. She has a legal education and also worked as a criminal defence lawyer in Australia.

Ms. Sarybaeva assumed her functions as UNAIDS Country Manager in 2014. Prior to joining UNAIDS, she worked at UNDP Social development dimension in charge of HIV issues. Before that from 2002-2010 Meerim has worked for UNDP HIV Programme covering issues of coordination, human rights and legislation.

Ms. Natalia Mochu is the Regional Director of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). She represents ITU in the CIS region, overseeing actions, projects, and initiatives for 9 countries. Her portfolio focuses on developing infrastructure, promoting innovation, cybersecurity, smart cities, digital inclusion, and accessibility.

Ms. Mochu holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and informatics, as well as a master's degree in information technology from the State University of Moldova.

Prior to joining the ITU in February 2020, Natalia served as Senior Manager for Global Stakeholder Engagement for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). From 2012 to 2018, she held the position of Deputy Head of Laboratory at the Radio Research and Development Institute (NIIR) in Moscow. Between 2006 and 2012, Natalia worked for the Executive Committee of the Regional Commonwealth in the field of Communications (RCC), notably as the RCC Executive Committee Deputy Director General from 2008 to 2012. She started her professional career with the Ministry of Information Development of the Republic of Moldova in 2002.

Natalia has actively participated in ITU high-level conferences and meetings, including ITU Plenipotentiary Conferences, Councils, and Sectoral Conferences. She has also made significant contributions to the activities of RCC working bodies, the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations and others.

Ms. Solomiya Omelyan joined UNIDO in 2007. In her current capacity as Chief of the Regional Bureau for Europe and Central Asia, Ms. Omelyan is responsible for determining regional strategies and programmatic priorities for UNIDO’s services in 27 countries of the region while ensuring that the Organization responds to the specific industrial development needs and requirements of its Member States.

Prior to joining UNIDO, Ms. Omelyan worked as a Policy Consultant at the United Nations Environment Programme’s Vienna Interim Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention (2005-2007) where she implemented regional projects in the area of sustainable development of the mountainous regions. She also worked in the Embassy of Ukraine in Austria, the Committee on Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship at the Parliament of Ukraine in Kyiv and different academic and research institutions.

Ms. Omelyan obtained her master’s degree with honours in international economics and international relations from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and her M.A. (Magister Artium) from the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, Germany. She is the President of the Ukrainian Club at the Vienna International Centre.