East Jerusalem, 02 September 2019 - UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner, appointed Ms Yvonne Helle as his Special Representative to UNDP’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (PAPP), to replace Mr Roberto Valent, who served as Special Representative from May 2015 to August 2019.

Ms Helle assumed her responsibilities on Sunday 01 September 2019. Prior to her appointment, Yvonne temporarily managed the Sub Regional Facility for the Syrian Crisis in Amman.

Yvonne started her UN career in 1992 as a Dutch JPO in UNIFEM’s Regional office in Mexico, was then reassigned to UNDP Laos, initially as a JPO and then as Assistant Resident Representative for Governance. She was subsequently selected into UNDP’s first LEAD programme in 2001, and was assigned to the Bureau for Resources and Strategic Partnerships, as partnerships advisor, working on a range of donor relations.

She then served as Deputy Resident Representative in Morocco from 2004-2008. After another donor relations assignment as Team Leader of the Division for Resources Mobilization, Yvonne was nominated as UNDP Country Director in Sudan in 2013. She subsequently organized the Ebola Recovery Conference for the Secretary General and was then reassigned as Senior Country Director in Haiti in August 2015, a post she occupied until early 2019.

A Dutch national, Yvonne holds an MSc from the Agricultural University of Wageningen in the Netherlands.