Cristina Albertin: Representative for the Regional UNODC Office for South Asia

Ms. Cristina Albertin joined as the Representative for the UNODC Regional Office for South Asia, New Delhi, India on April 24 2009.  In her career spanning over 20 years, Cristina has worked with the United Nations in different capacities.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Cristina grew up as a citizen of Germany. She acquired a Masters in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the Justus-Liebig-University in Germany. In 1990, she was selected for the Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme funded by the German Government, where she joined as Assistant Project Officer at the World Food Programme (WFP) in La Paz, Bolivia. Between 1991 and 1994, she travelled extensively and interacted with rural peasant families and government institutions on developmental issues such as livelihoods, health and education of children and women.

In 1994, Cristina joined the United Nations Drug Control Programme (which later came to be known as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime - UNODC) in Lima, Peru, as Assistant Representative. During her tenure (1994-1997), she worked extensively with coca-growing families in Peru, promoting alternative livelihood options for them. She also developed, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, a drug use prevention project in Peru's schools, focusing on training teachers on healthy lifestyles for children.

After more than six years of grass-roots experience in the Andean region, Cristina moved to the UNODC Headquarters in Vienna, Austria in 1997. Here, she served for nine years in various capacities. She worked as a Programme Manager for South America, supporting the development of and fund-raising for technical cooperation projects in drug control and later became the Chief of the Regional Section for Latin America and the Caribbean, at a time when UNODC's work in the region acquired increased importance in light of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) coming into force. Interested in staff, human resources management and internal justice issues, she assumed additional responsibilities as a member to the United Nations Office in Vienna (UNOV)/UNODC staff council, as a staff representative on the UNODC/UNOV appointment and promotion panel and on the UNODC/UNOV Joint Appeals Board.

In early 2007, Cristina took a field posting, by joining as the UNODC Representative in La Paz, Bolivia. In Bolivia, she devoted much time to interact and inform communities about the risks and impact of drugs and crime on the Bolivian society and how the respective international conventions could be used to effectively address these threats. She worked persistently to create greater awareness on the risks of human trafficking and advocated for building respective capacities to address this issue, especially in view of the large number of children going missing through the Bolivian/Argentine border as well as Bolivians migrating to neighboring countries and also Spain, often leaving behind their children at risk of being exploited or trafficked.

Since April 2009,  Cristina heads the UNODC Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA), based in New Delhi, India. The Office covers six countries in the region - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. As the Regional Representative, Cristina focuses on policy dialogue and advocacy with national and regional decision-makers in South Asia for ratification of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Her focus is to create more awareness about the risks and impact of organized crime and corruption on the rule-of-law and security for the people in the region, and to advocate for the comprehensive implementation of the UN Conventions to counteract these threats.

Cristina firmly believes in communication of the UN goals and its relevance in the lives of people. Therefore, she regularly interacts with the media and actively engages in developing communication material on the importance of UNODC's work in the areas of justice, security and the rule of law. Through the UNODC ROSA website, the Office regularly publishes human interest stories related to the prevention and treatment of drug use and HIV as well as prevention of drug trafficking, human trafficking and other forms of organized crime.

Visit: http://www.unodc.org/southasia

Email Id: cristina.albertin@unodc.org