UNFPA Country Support Team for the South Pacific

Mr. Birat Simha took up his assignment as UNFPA Represen-tative for Papua New Guinea, based in Port Moresby, in mid-September 1998.

Mr. Simha has 20 years of experience in the United Nations system. He has served the last eight years (1990-1998) as UNFPA Deputy Representative in India and then in Pakistan. During 1984-90, he served as Programme Officer in the Asia and the Pacific Division, New York; in this capacity, he was the desk officer for UNFPA’s programme in the Pacific for a number of years and he had the opportunity to visit seven of the Pacific countries on programme missions.

During 1979-83, Mr. Simha served as Junior Professional Officer (JPO) with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Lagos, Nigeria.

Mr. Simha has a MA in International Relations from the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, USA. He holds a BA degree in Political Science from Brandeis University in Waltham, USA.