Ms. Jan McAlpine, Director of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), retired in November 2013. During her tenure as Director, she launched the innovative Facilitative Process, which provides enhanced capacity development for developing countries to mobilize forest financing, and developed a fundraising strategy which generated over $18 million by developing a bottom-up, technical and expert program of work for UNFF.
Throughout her 35-year career, she has worked on strategic policy and planning related to environment, trade, finance and social issues at the United Nations, in Government, including the Office of the President of the United States and in multilateral not-for-profits and academic institutions. Ms. McAlpine previously served as Senior Negotiator and Advisor for Forests for the United States Department of State, as well as the Chairman of the International Tropical Timber Council and is currently a member of the World Future Council.
Ms. McAlpine has been instrumental in conceiving and implementing international initiatives such as the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, the Liberia Forest Initiative and most recently Rwanda’s Forest and Landscape Restoration initiative. Her efforts resulted in a $9.5 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for the Rwanda project ($63 million in total funding) in 2012. She has been honored by various academic institutions including the Swedish Royal Academy and the German Society of Foresters.
Jan McAlpine grew up in Central and Southern Africa, in Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Kenya and South Africa.
See the DESA News interview with Ms. McAlpine that she gave ahead of the UN Forum on Forest 10 that took place on 8-19 April 2013 in Istanbul.
Comings
The following staff members were promoted in November:
Kebebush Welkema, Research Assistant, Division for Sustainable Development
Lydia Debbie Gatan, Staff Assistant, Division for Public Administration and Development Management
Thilo Maier, Information Systems Officer, Statistics Division
Leah McDavid, Information Technology Assistant, Financing for Development Office
LienKim Nguyen, Editorial Assistant, Population Division
Richard Roehrl, Senior Economic Affairs Officer, Division for Sustainable Development
