His Excellency Mr. Collen Vixen Kelapile has an accumulated career of 29 years in multilateral diplomacy, both as a government representative, intergovernmental expert and is also a former United Nations (UN) Secretariat staff member.
He is a former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Botswana to the UN in New York from October 2018 until March 2023. He was during the same period Botswana’s Ambassador to Cuba and High Commissioner to Jamaica, on a non-resident basis.
Most recently he served as the 77th President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at its 2022 Session from July 2021 to July 2022, during which he effectively led the Council’s continued focus on implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During his tenure as Ambassador in New York, he led his country as the Global Chair of the Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), playing a pivotal role on implementation of the last phase of the Vienna Programme of Action for the decade 2014-2024 and facilitating preparations for the convening of the Third United Nations Conference for LLDCs to be held in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2024.
Prior to his appointment as Ambassador in New York, he was the Chief of Staff to the Executive-Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 2014 to 2018.
From 2013 to 2014, Ambassador Kelapile served as the Deputy Director in the Department of Africa and the Middle East at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Botswana overseeing Central, East, North and West Africa as well as the Middle East.
From 2004 to 2012 was elected by the UN General Assembly as a member of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), where he served for three consecutive 3-year terms amounting to 9 years.
During his 9-years tenure in the Advisory Committee or ACABQ, he served as Vice-Chair for 3 years from 2008 to 2010 and subsequently as its Chair for 2 years from 2011 to 2012.
Prior to his successful election to ACABQ Ambassador Kelapile was previously posted at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Botswana in New York from 1998 to 2003, where he rose through diplomatic ranks from Second Secretary to level of Counsellor.
As a member of the diplomatic staff of the Mission of Botswana in New York he was the delegate to the Administrative and Budgetary (or Fifth) Committee of the UN General Assembly for 6 years from 1998 to 2003.
He served in the Bureau of the Fifth Committee as the Vice-Chair at the 55th Session of the General Assembly in 2000/2001. He was also the Coordinator of the African Group of experts in the Fifth Committee from 2001 to 2003.
He was at the same time Botswana’s delegate to other related bodies such as the Committee for Programmes and Coordination (CPC), which is a dual subsidiary Committee reporting to both the UN General Assembly and ECOSOC. He served as the Vice-Chair of the CPC at its 42nd Session in 2002.
During his earlier tenure at the Mission of Botswana in New York Ambassador Kelapile also simultaneously served as focal point on the Legal (or Sixth) Committee of the UN General Assembly, coinciding also with the time of the elaboration of the Rome Statute on the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Among his notable engagements and roles in the UN’s intergovernmental processes in New York include serving as:
· Vice-President of UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board, 2019 Session.
· Chair of 59th Session of the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC), 2019.
· Co-Facilitator of the Alignment Process of the agendas of the General Assembly and ECOSOC during 74th Session of the UN General Assembly, 2019/2020.
· Chair of Special Political and Decolonization (or Fourth) Committee during 75th Session of the UN General Assembly, 2020/2021.
· Vice-President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), at its 2021 Session.
· Co-Chair of the Group of Friends on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) at the UN in New York, 2021-2023.
· Co-Chair of the Joint Steering Committee of the African Group-CARRICOM Caucus (AfCAR) Collaboration Initiative at the UN, which he is a co-founder together with the former Permanent Representative of Grenada, 2020 – 2023.
· Co-Chair of the Group of Friends of UN-Habitat, Sustainable Urbanization and the New Urban Agenda, which he is a co-founder together with the former Permanent Representative of Slovakia, 2022 – 2023.
· Chair of the Advisory Board of the World Youth Group, 2019-2023.
Ambassador Kelapile joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1995 as Desk Officer for the UN, soon after graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree (Political Science and Public Administration) from the University of Botswana in the same year, 1995.
Among other diplomatic career capacity-building and leadership development, Ambassador Kelapile also received professional diplomatic training at the Foreign Service Institute in New Delhi, India, in 1996.
