United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appointed Shombi Sharp of the United States as the UN Resident Coordinator in India with the host government’s approval, according to a statement.

Mr. Sharp has “devoted more than 25 years of his career to promoting inclusive and sustainable development internationally, bringing experience he has acquired at the United Nations and externally to this new position”, the UN said in the statement issued on Monday.

Within the world organisation, he most recently served as United Nations Resident Coordinator in Armenia.

Mr. Sharp has held several leadership positions at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where he was Resident Representative in Armenia, Deputy Resident Representative in Georgia, Deputy Country Director in Lebanon, Regional HIV/AIDS Practice Team Leader for UNDP Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States in the Russian Federation, Programme Manager for the Western Balkans in New York and Assistant Resident Representative in the Russian Federation.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Mr. Sharp began his career in development with the international non-profit CARE International in Zimbabwe, the statement said.

He is a published author of works in health economics and was a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) ‘policy champion’ as well as a nominee for the UNDP administrator’s award.

Mr. Sharp holds a postgraduate diploma in HIV/AIDS management from the National Medical University of South Africa and Stellenbosch University in South Africa; a master’s degree in economics from the University of Colorado and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Kansas.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the secretary general, said at a briefing that resident coordinators lead the work of “our UN teams on the ground, including our continuing support to national COVID-19 response plans to recover better for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.

“These senior UN officials are also the representatives of the secretary-general for development at the country level,” he said.