The UN Resident Coordinator Office
The Resident Coordinator’s Office works under the direct leadership of the Resident Coordinator and is comprised of professional officers based in the Jerusalem, Ramallah and Gaza offices. A key aspect of the RCO’s work is to enhance coordination and coherence between the 24 humanitarian and development agencies that comprise the UN Country Team and with the political mandate of UNSCO. It also engages with the donor community, the Palestinian Authority, the Government of Israel and civil society on the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of aid policies and programming.
The UN Resident Coordinator in Palestine
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed on 5 May 2025 Sarah Poole of the United States as his new Resident Coordinator ad interim, Deputy Special Coordinator Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) on an ad interim basis. Ms. Poole will also serve as Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim. In addition, Ms. Poole will serve as Designated Official ad interim. She succeeds Mr. Muhannad Hadi of Jordan, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedication and service.
Ms. Poole brings 30 years of experience working globally in development and humanitarian contexts. Since 1999, she has served in numerous leadership position in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), most recently through her appointment in August 2023 as the Special Representative of the Administrator to the UNDP’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People. Previously, since 2018 she served as UNDP's Deputy Regional Director for the Arab States region, including her tenure as Regional Director ad interim at the ASG level from February 2020 to February 2021. Ms. Poole has also served as the Deputy Director of the Bureau for Programme and Policy Support; Senior Advisor for the Europe and CIS Region; Resident Representative a.i. and Deputy Resident Representative in Turkey; Team Leader for the Western Balkans, Turkey and Cyprus; Senior Advisor in the Bureau for External Relations and Advocacy; and the global team leader for post-crisis socio-economic and community recovery.
Before joining UNDP, Ms. Poole served as the Regional Refugee Coordinator/Deputy with the US Department of State's Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro between 1996 and 1999; and with USAID's Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance in Rwanda, Burundi, and Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1994 to 1996. Ms. Poole holds a MSc in Government from the London School of Economics and Political Science; a BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; and has served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's School for International and Public Affairs, focused on the nexus between crisis, peacebuilding, and development.
