UNESCO welcomes new Director to Southern Africa

UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa welcomes Nisha to the region in the capacity of Regional Director and Representative for UNESCO covering nine countries - Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Nisha replaces Professor Arthur Lidia Brito who has since assumed the position of Assistant Director General Natural Sciences in Paris, France after serving the office from Dec 2021 to June 2023. 

Nisha brings over 35 years of experience to her current role as the Regional Director and Representative. In her current role, Nisha is forging regional and national collaborations and partnerships for building resilient and dynamic communities and societies in Southern Africa. She is leading UNESCO’s programmatic, advocacy, and normative work covering education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, and information and communication in the region. Nisha has been a keen advocate of UN Reforms and has been ensuring the alignment of UNESCO’s work with the common results agreed with the UN System.

Before joining UNESCO ROSA, Nisha served as the Director of the Office and UNESCO Representative to the Pacific States. In the Pacific, Nisha recalibrated the UNESCO Office for the Pacific States to focus on the long-term purpose of the Organization while tending to the urgent operational issues to bring the Organization closer to national stakeholders. She expanded the Organization’s work, presence, and resources in the Pacific Region and set up four new Offices to cover three sub-regions of the Pacific.

Nisha’s overall work has been centered on multi-sector development, humanitarian action, labour and human rights, peacebuilding, and local, national, and regional development. Before working with UNESCO, Nisha worked internationally with Oxfam GB, Christian Aid, UNDP, UNIFEM, and the ILO in several countries in the East and Horn of Africa, South Asia, and Arab States, and with civil society organizations in India.