Our Representative
Octavian Bivol
Biography
Octavian Bivol has been serving as UNICEF’s Director of the European Partnerships office in Brussels, Belgium since 2026.
Driving UNICEF’s mission at the heart of Europe, Mr. Bivol is building strategic relationships with European leaders, EU institutions and European Member States to champion children’s rights, at a time when they face conflicts, rapid climate change, poverty, ballooning debts, and the erosion of investments in services so critical to them.
He leads an office mobilizing support from major EU and European Member States to UNICEF, to deliver critical responses for children in emergencies, and invest in resilient services, systems and policies promoting children’s rights across the globe.
Mr Bivol joined UNICEF in 1995, serving in programmatic and partnerships roles in Moldova, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, and the ECARO regional office in Geneva, Switzerland.
He subsequently went on to hold a number of leaderships roles including as UNICEF's Representative to Bulgaria and to Lao People's Democratic Republic. He also held Deputy Director roles in the ECARO regional office in Geneva, Switzerland and the European Partnerships office in Brussels, Belgium.
During his first tenure in Brussels, Mr. Bivol also led the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).
He holds a Doctorate in Medicine from the Nicolae Testemițanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy (USMF) in Chisinau, Moldova. He is fluent in four languages including, English, French, Romanian and Russian.