IDMC’s Advisory Group assembles a body of experience and expertise which provides invaluable counsel on the organisation’s strategic vision and direction. It is comprised of sector experts, and representatives of IDMC’s main partners, particularly among countries and UN agencies dealing with the issue of internal displacement. The Group held its first meeting in September 2019.
Principal Advisor on Internal Displacement, UNHCR
Sumbul Rizvi was appointed as Principal Advisor on Internal Displacement to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ in June 2019. Immediately prior she served as the United Nations Coordinator for the Rohingya Refugee Response in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. She has served as the second Chairperson of IDMC’s Advisory Group since 2021.
An Indian national, she has spent over 33 years in human rights and humanitarian work including as a litigating counsel, NGO advisor and with the United Nations. She has served in diverse conflict situationsincluding - Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur-Sudan among others, also establishing emergency response and coordination mechanisms in Syria and Kyrgyzstan in the early stages of the conflict. Skilled in refugee, IDP and asylum-migration management, her roles have included inter-agency coordination leadership and operational management. She has also served as UNHCR’s Policy Adviser on asylum and migration in Geneva during the Mediterranean Crisis, working with the global migration fora and on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Sumbul holds degrees in Economics and in Law and spent over a decade as a practicing lawyer in India working on corporate and criminal law and pro bono human rights interventions. She also served as a State Counsel and taught law prior to joining the UN.
Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations Office and other International Organisations in Geneva, Switzerland
Ambassador Abiodun R. Adejola joined the Foreign Service of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1993. Prior to his present appointment as Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations Office and other International Organisations in Geneva, Switzerland, he was the Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. at the Embassy of Nigeria to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Permanent Mission to the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ambassador Adejola is a seasoned diplomat and multilateralist who rose through the ranks. He was the best graduating student-officer of the 12th Regular Course of the Nigerian Foreign Service Academy in 1994. In the course of his career, he has worked in various capacities both at Post and Headquarters. He has served in two categories of Diplomatic Missions (Bilateral and Multilateral posts): at the Embassy and Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the AU and the UNECA in Addis Ababa, the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations in New York, and the High Commissions of Nigeria in London, United Kingdom, and Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Ambassador A. Richards Adejola has a permanent and abiding interests in multilateral negotiations, disarmament and arms control issues, futures studies, global finance, conflict management and the environment among others. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree and Master of Science Degree in International Relations. Similarly, he has participated extensively in short-term educational and training programmes in Diplomacy and International Relations at the Foreign Service Academy in Lagos and at the United Nations in New York.
Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to United Nations Office at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland
Negash Kebret Botora served as the Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other International Organisations in Switzerland and Vienna, as well as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia to Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
Mr. Botora also served as the Chair of the Council of the International Organization for Migration, Regional Coordinator of Africa for the International Labour Office and member of the Consultative Group of the Human Rights Council.
Prior to this, Mr. Botora served as the Director General for International Organisations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia and as Director General for the African Directorate General at the Ministry. He was also the Ambassador and Acting Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the United Nations in New York, and held Ambassador posts to Israel, Greece, Holy See and India. As a diplomat, he also worked for the Ethiopian Permanent Mission in Geneva, as well as at the Ethiopian embassy in Stockholm, Sweden.
Mr. Botora holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Government Studies from the Addis Ababa University as well as a Master's degree in International Relations from Webster University in Geneva. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in International Relations from the University of Stockholm.
Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons
Ms. Paula Gaviria Betancur is a human rights lawyer and a forced displacement expert with over two decades of experience in human rights and humanitarian affairs. She currently serves as Executive Director of Compaz, a non-profit organization in Colombia founded by Nobel Laureate Juan Manuel Santos. She was a member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement which issued the seminal report on the global internal displacement crisis, on which the SG’s Action Agenda on Internal Displacement is based.
She has been an IDP advocate in civil society, the judicial sector, academia, and government, including on durable solutions to internal displacement and particularly for the role of the private sector in breaking the displacement cycle. She was the President of Colombia’s Human Rights Advisor (2016-2018). Her role was key in ensuring the victims’ participation in the negotiations. Before that, she supported the development and implementation of the country’s 2011 Victims’ Law and directed its Victims Unit (2012-2016), overseeing the development of the Victims Registry. In 2016, she received the World Bank José Edgardo Campos Collaborative Leadership Award. Previously she acted as Director of Human Rights Promotion at the Ombudsman Office of Colombia (2000-2004).
North of Central America and Mexico Director, NRC
Angelita Caredda is the North of Central America and Mexico Director for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Before moving to Latin America, Angelita worked with NRC in the Middle East, covering the positions of Country Director and Head of Programme in the Syria Response Office and Programme Advisor at the Regional Office. Prior to joining NRC, she was the Terre des hommes Country Director in Kenya and Sudan and held various positions with Relief International, with postings in Jordan, Afghanistan and the UK.
Ms. Caredda holds bachelor degree in Political Science from the University of Cagliari and an MSc in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, at the University of London.
Advisor and Mentor in the International Humanitarian Sector
Joel R. Charny retired in 2021 as the Executive Director of Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) USA. He was responsible for providing overall leadership to the organization, which focuses on fundraising and humanitarian advocacy in the United States on behalf of Oslo-based NRC.
Prior to joining NRC USA in 2016, Mr. Charny was the Vice President for Humanitarian Policy and Practice at InterAction, the alliance of US-based relief and development organizations. He was responsible for leading InterAction’s work on humanitarian response, which involved engaging with the US government, the United Nations and member non-governmental organizations on both practical and policy matters.
Prior to joining InterAction in 2010, Mr. Charny was the Vice President for Policy with Refugees International, a Washington-based humanitarian advocacy organization, for which he conducted a large number of humanitarian assessment missions in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Mr. Charny joined Refugees International in 2000 after working for four years in Cambodia as Deputy Program Manager with the CARERE project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Prior to working for UNDP in Cambodia, Mr. Charny spent sixteen years with Oxfam America, a relief and development organization based in Boston, including as a Policy Director.
He has an A.B degree in European History from Brown University and a Masters’ degree in international education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Visiting Professor at the School of Governance in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Peter de Clercq of the Netherlands is currently a Visiting Professor at the School of Governance in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg South Africa. He is the former UN Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia and Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator in that country.
Mr. de Clercq worked with the UN for 34 years at various duty stations in peacekeeping, political affairs, development and humanitarian operations. He served as the Deputy Special Representative for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti and Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim in Sudan. He worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for 27 years, during which time he held various positions in its headquarters in Geneva and Budapest, as well as in field assignments in Sudan, Zimbabwe, Angola and Pakistan. He has also been seconded to the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to the United Nations Development Programme in Sudan.
He served as the first Chairperson of IDMC’s Advisory Group from 2019 to 2021. His specific interest is to help place the internal displacement issue firmly at the centre of attention of the international community and in particular to enhance understanding between displacement, urbanisation and social and demographic transformation.
Mr. de Clercq holds a master’s degree in development sociology from the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands and is a graduate of the Netherlands’ Institute for International Affairs Clingendael in The Hague.
Permanent Representative of Fiji to the United Nations Office and other International Organisations in Geneva
Ambassador Daunivalu was posted as Fiji’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organisations in Geneva, Switzerland in June 2022.
Prior to his current assignment, he was Fiji’s High Commissioner to Australia. He previously served as Ambassador and head of the Permanent Mission of Fiji to the United Nations in New York. In addition to other roles served during his two diplomatic postings in New York, he was Chief Negotiator on Climate Change under Fiji’s Presidency of the 23rd Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 23) and was Deputy Team Leader during Fiji’s Chairmanship of the Group of 77 & China.
Before joining Fiji’s foreign service, Mr Daunivalu had worked as a lawyer in Fiji with the Attorney General’s Office, Ministry of Education, Fiji Police Force, and Ministry of Trade and Commerce.
He acquired his professional and legal qualifications from Australia, Fiji and the United Kingdom.
Senior Advisor on Internally Displaced Persons, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Sebastian von Einsiedel is the Senior Advisor on Internally Displaced Persons at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Previously he served as UN University’s (UNU) Vice-Rector in Bonn and founding Director of UNU’s Centre for Policy Research. Sebastian also worked in the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General; the UN Department of Political Affairs; the UN Mission in Nepal; the research staff of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change; and the International Peace Institute. Before joining the UN world, Sebastian worked as a foreign affairs staffer in the German Parliament and at NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
He has written widely on the UN’s role in peace and security and is the co-editor of The UN Security Council in the 21st Century (LRP, 2016) and Nepal in Transition (CUP, 2012)
Professor Emeritus of international and constitutional law at the Faculty of Law, University of Bern and currently Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement
Walter Kälin is professor emeritus of international and constitutional law (Faculty of Law, University of Bern) and currently Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement, a State-led process working towards better protection for people displaced across borders in the context of disasters and climate change. He also supports the Resident/Humanitarian Coordinators in Somalia and Ethiopia as Special Advisor on Internal Displacement with a focus on durable solutions.
Previously, Mr. Kälin was Representative of the UN Secretary General on the human rights of internally displaced persons and a member of the UN Human Rights Committee. He also served as Envoy of the Chairmanship of the Nansen Initiative on Disaster-induced-Cross-border Displacement.
In his different capacities, Mr. Kälin has been cooperating with IDMC for more than a decade on issues related to both conflict- and disaster-induced internal displacement and is particularly interested in its work on internal displacement associated with slow-onset environmental change linked to climate change.
Mr. Kälin received his Doctor of Law from the University of Bern and his LL.M. from Harvard Law School.
Assistant Administrator and Director of the Crisis Bureau, UNDP
Ms. Asako Okai officially began her role as UNDP’s Assistant Administrator and Director for the Crisis Bureau on August 22, 2018. In this role, she leads UNDP’s corporate crisis-related work and drives UNDP’s vision and priorities for crisis prevention, response and recovery.
Ms. Okai has over 30 years of experience in the Japanese Foreign Service and the United Nations. She possesses an extensive track record in development, humanitarian response, disaster management and peacebuilding work at both the strategic and operational levels.
Throughout her career, she closely engaged in the evolution of international cooperation frameworks in different capacities, including the forging of historic institutional reforms of the international cooperation apparatus in Japan, and implementing innovative financial mechanisms to support reliable humanitarian funding models as Japan’s Director of Humanitarian Assistance. Ms. Okai held several diplomatic senior positions worldwide and worked closely with the United Nations Headquarters, both in the Permanent Mission of Japan to the UN and as a Senior Member of the Office of the President of the 66th UN General Assembly, most recently serving as Consul-General of Japan in Vancouver, Canada.
She holds a Master of Arts in History of Art, Emmanuel College, Cambridge University and a bachelor’s degree in Law, Hitotsubashi University, Japan.
Advisor, Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department & Chief of Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations
Mr. Tumiwa is Advisor, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department and Chief of the Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations team at the Asian Development Bank. He joined ADB in 2001 as a Renewable Energy Specialist and held several positions in the energy sector, most notably developing ADB’s clean energy and access to energy programs and establishing the Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility. Mr. Tumiwa also served as the Deputy Representative for North America in Washington, D.C. in 2011-2016 and as ADB’s Country Director in Afghanistan in 2017-2019. He has over 30 years of professional experience in international development and strategic partnerships, including over 20 years in ADB.
Director of the Global Data Institute, IOM
Dr. Koko Warner is Director of IOM’s Global Data Institute, located in Berlin. Koko has worked in the United Nations for over 16 years, directing research on climate change and migration, and climate risk management at the United Nations University before joining the secretariat to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to supervise the climate impacts, vulnerabilities and risk policy workstreams in its adaptation division.
Throughout her career with the United Nations, Koko has contributed to understanding, managing, and informing policy about adverse climate impacts. She conducted the first field-based studies of climate change and migration, and of loss and damage that informed the Paris Agreement.
Prior to joining the UN system, Koko was a researcher at ETH Zürich at the WSL Federal Institute for snow and avalanche research working on comprehensive risk management in Davos, Switzerland. Koko received her PhD in Economics from the University of Vienna as a Fulbright Fellow, while working at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).