Christian Saunders

Saunders was born in the United Kingdom and spent his early childhood in South East Asia before returning to the United Kingdom to attend boarding school at the age of seven. He is a graduate of Royal Holloway at the University of London and the University of Wales.  

Saunders began his career in 1984 working in humanitarian relief for Save the Children in the Sudan where he established and managed refugee camps and then in Mozambique overseeing the relief and development program. In 1989, his United Nations career began with UNRWA in Gaza during the First Intifada.[7] Subsequently, he served in several field positions with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the United Nations Office of the Special Coordinator for Sarajevo .[8] He later undertook short term assignments on behalf of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) [9] to set up their emergency humanitarian response operations in both Kosovo [10] and East Timor.[11]

Starting in 2001, Saunders held a series of senior management positions at the United Nations Secretariat in New York City. Some of his notable achievements included: coordinating duty of care for humanitarian personnel across the affected countries during the Ebola Outbreak in 2014;[12]  orchestrating the successful deployment of the UN’s new enterprise resource planning system – UMOJA - across UN Headquarters in 2015 [13] -  and advancing the Secretary General’s management reforms.[14][15] He also co-chaired the working group which developed the UN’s new ‘whistleblower’ protection policy in 2017.[16]

At UNRWA, Saunders prioritised operational continuity and introduced management reforms to strengthen the agency and promote greater transparency, effectiveness and accountability.[17][18] In a brief period, he obtained overwhelming support for the renewal of UNRWA’s mandate by the United Nations General Assembly,[19][20] unlocked donor funding that had been frozen due to the investigation,[21][22][23] and secured pledges for additional funds.[24][25] However, Saunders continues to highlight the agency’s significant financial shortfall, and called upon donor states to support the organisation’s vital programs with additional contributions.[26]

• Member of High Level Task Force on UN Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse[27]
• Board Member of United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund [28]
• Member of International Gender Champions.[29]