Our Team in Georgia

Andrew Jewell joined the IMF in 2010. Prior to this post, he served as the IMF Resident Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also served as Senior Economist at the IMF’s European Department. Prior to joining the IMF, Jewell has served as an economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury for 10 years.

Douglas Webb is a distinguished development professional with over two decades of experience within the United Nations, specializing in the fields of health and environmental sustainability across the globe. Prior to his appointment as UNDP Resident Representative in Georgia, Mr. Webb served as the Global Health and Environment Advisor for UNDP, stationed in Jordan. In 2020, he took on the pivotal role of coordinating UNDP's global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout his career, Douglas Webb has contributed to multiple UN agencies, including UNICEF, with a primary focus on epidemic response governance and the examination of social determinants of health within the context of environmental change. His extensive work has spanned across Zambia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ghana, Senegal, Jordan, South Africa, and regions of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Douglas Webb earned his Doctor of Philosophy Degree from the University of London (UK) and currently serves as an adjunct professor at the School of Global Public Health at New York University. He is also an accomplished author with more than 50 published articles and book chapters to his credit.

Irakli Malania has been appointed as the Humanitarian Affairs Officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the South Caucasus, based in Tbilisi. Before joining OCHA, Irakli has served as the Public Diplomacy Programs Coordinator to the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi since 2018. His portfolio included educational and professional exchange, public diplomacy, and democracy assistance programs. He also worked as a Project Officer for the refugee integration and livelihood project implemented by the United Nations Association of Georgia (UNAG) and as a Project Assistant for the Advancing National Integration project implemented with financial support from USAID. Irakli holds a master’s degree in Public Policy from the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA), and also graduated from the Free University of Tbilisi with a BA Honors specialization in International Relations with Concentration on Far East (Chinese Language). He spent an exchange year in San Antonio, TX as a FLEX program finalist (2009-2010) and went to Nanjing, China (2014-2015) to study Chinese language and culture as a university exchange student.

Ivana Fernandes Duarte has been leading the IFC work in the South Caucasus since June 2021. Ivana is focusing on further enhancing IFC business delivery in the South Caucasus with special emphasis on sustainable inclusive growth and climate change, digitalization and capital markets development, as well as developing the IFC Upstream activities in the region.

Fernandes Duarte, a Slovak Republic national, has joined IFC with over 20 years of experience in international finance. She has served in various positions at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Citigroup. In those roles, she particularly focused on private infrastructure development and financing as well as across the sectors country management. Prior to development finance, she worked in investment banking with expertise in project finance and emerging markets. She holds an MBA from the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, and a Master's in Economics from the University of Economics in Slovakia.

IFC is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets, working in more than 100 countries, using capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries.

Jesper started his journey with UNICEF in 1999 in the field of planning, monitoring and evaluation in offices at both country, regional and headquarters in India, Thailand, Zambia and United States. Starting 2012, Jesper transitioned into senior management as Deputy Representative and served in this critical function in Viet Nam, Somalia and South Sudan. Before joining UNICEF, Jesper worked in South Africa with national NGOs focusing on economic development research advancing the rights of vulnerable rural women.
Jesper holds a master’s degree in economics from University of Copenhagen with concentration on Development Economics, International Political Economics and Human Rights and Democracy.

Ms. Kaori Ishikawa officially assumed her assignment as UN Women Country Representative for Georgia on 27 August 2021.

Kaori brings over 20 years of extensive experience managing peace, humanitarian and development programmes as well as policy and advocacy work in over 20 countries.

Prior to her assignment in Georgia, she was the Head of Office for UNFPA Mongolia. Kaori served in a number of UNFPA Country Offices and Sub-Offices with large and complex operations, including Lao PDR, Yemen, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Myanmar. She also served in UNFPA Arab States Regional Office (ASRO) in Cairo and Gender, Human Rights and Culture Branch of Technical Division of UNFPA HQ in New York as Gender Specialist.

Prior to joining UNFPA, she worked with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP) in Japan.
Kaori is a national from Japan and holds a Bachelor's degrees in Sociology, with specialization on social welfare policy on aging population from Ritsumeikan University, Japan; a Diploma in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia, UK; a Master's degree in Women and Development from Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands; and a Master of Business Administration at Warwick Business School in the UK.
She is married with one daughter.

Ms Furley has worked with UNHCR for nearly 25 years in various functions including programme, policy, communications, emergency response and humanitarian inter-agency coordination. She headed the partnership section in HQs supporting UNHCR’s global partnerships with NGOs and UN agencies, and was later head of policy and field support for Eastern Europe and South East Europe. Most recently she was Deputy Representative and then Head of External Relations in Uganda, UNHCR’s biggest Africa operation. She has also worked as UNICEF Deputy Representative in Russia. She has degrees from Cambridge and Princeton universities.

Mr. Lars Johan Lönnback has officially assumed the position of Chief of Mission at IOM Georgia. Lars has worked with IOM for over 15 years, designing and implementing strategies to manage migration in multiple contexts including in development, emergency and post-crisis settings in Europe and Asia Pacific region. Prior to Georgia, Lars served as the Chief of Mission in Moldova for the past five years, playing an instrumental role in IOM's response, overseeing the provision of humanitarian assistance and support to Ukrainian refugees. His career at IOM began as Head of Division and Senior Migration Policy Advisor at the headquarters in Geneva. He later served as Senior Migration Policy Advisor on Migration and Development at the IOM Regional Office for Asia Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand. Previously, Lars held various roles at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, including positions in Brussels at the Swedish Permanent Representation as Counselor, and at the European Commission as National Expert. His early career also includes a posting in Sarajevo at the Office of the High Representative for the Dayton Peace Accords as a political officer, and experience with UNHCR in Northern Iraq and the Russian Federation. Lars holds a master’s degree in international law from the University of Stockholm, Sweden.

After three-year assignment as a FAO Liaison Officer for Georgia, Mr Meskhi was appointed in his current position of the Assistant FAO Representative in 2004 when the Representation Office of the Organization was inaugurated in Georgia. Before joining FAO, Mr. Meskhi briefly served as the Head of International Relations Department in the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia in 2000. From 1991 to 2000 he worked for the private sector in the areas of agriculture and energy, including the positions of an Import & Marketing Manager of HANWHA Petroleum (Seoul, Korea), Coordinator of a Gulf-Georgia Project Fertilizers for Dry Areas in Sharjah, the U.A.E., the Trade Consultant in Benghazi, Libya and the Marketing Consultant of Jason Co in Moscow, Russian Federation and Wolvega, the Netherlands. In 1986-91 he was a lecturer of the Contemporary Arabic at the Department of Semitic Languages in the Tbilisi State University. Mr. Meskhi holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration, MSc in International Relations and BSc in Linguistics.

Ms. Mariam Bandzeladze has been appointed UNFPA Head of Office in Georgia in March 2024. She has worked for UNFPA Georgia for more than 12 years, leading its comprehensive portfolio of gender equality as well as the policy dialogue on human rights issues with the UN, government, and development partners since 2012. Before joining UNFPA, trained as an international lawyer, Mariam has worked on progressively increasing managerial positions in the private sector and the development field for more than 15 years. She holds an LL.M Degree in International Legal Studies from Georgetown University, Washington DC, and a Ph.D. Degree in Education Sciences from International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Ms. Chamilova joined UNODC Georgia in 2016 with 23 years of comprehensive analytical, planning, admin and int’l program management experience, including 10 years working overseas. She has significant experience in representing and consulting on behalf of Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD). She holds a PhD in cross-cultural problems, Education Research Institute, Moscow, Russia; B.Ed. Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada; B.A. in History/Social Studies, Dagestan State University, Russia.

Ms. Rolande Pryce most recently served as the World Bank Country Manager for Rwanda. She joined the Bank in 2006 as Counsel in the Legal Vice Presidency. She has held several operational positions across the World Bank’s regions, including in Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific, Africa and South Asia. She has also worked in the World Bank’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice on energy reform and regulation. She has held leadership positions as Operations Manager in Indonesia in the East Asia and Pacific Region and as Country Manager for Rwanda in the Eastern and Southern Africa Region. Prior to joining the World Bank, Pryce worked as legal adviser to the Jamaican Government on Public International Law and International Trade issues and as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. She holds a Master’s degree in Public International Law from the University College of London, a Juris Doctor from the University of Miami, and a Bachelor of Science in International Business and Mathematics from the City University of New York.

Dr Domente is WHO Representative and Head of the Country Office in Georgia since April 2019. In 2013, he became part of the WHO team on the ground in Athens, Greece, acting initially as Health System Analyst and since 2016 as Senior Adviser, Health Policy and team leader. In 2004 Dr Domente has joined the UN family, working first for UNICEF Moldova as HIV Officer. Since 2008 Dr Domente is with WHO. He worked initially as Technical Officer, Disaster Preparedness and Response and then as Health System Officer in the WHO Country Office in the Republic of Moldova.

Mr Talgat Toleubayev of France has been appointed Regional Coordinator in the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute’s CBRN Risk Mitigation and Security Governance Programme on 1 November 2019. He coordinates activities for 10 countries of South East and East Europe region within the framework of the European Union’s CBRN Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence Initiative.
Prior to assuming this position, he has worked at the headquarters of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) for more than 16 years. He graduated from the Boston University majoring in Strategy and Security Studies.

Dr. Shkolnikov holds this position since July 2011. Prior to this assignment he held a number of positions in the intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations focusing on human rights and good governance in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He also served as a Senior Fellow at the Jefferson Institute with offices in Belgrade, Serbia and Washington. He also served as the Director, Europe Office of Freedom House in Hungary, the OSCE/ODIHR Adviser on Migration and Freedom of Movement and later as the Head of Democratization Department of OSCE/ODIHR in Poland, and the Resident Research Consultant at the RAND Corporation in the USA.