Our Representative

Bilal Aurang Zeb Durrani is serving as UNICEF Country Representative to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) since August 2024. In this role, he is responsible for providing leadership and vision to the UNICEF country team to realize the rights of children.

Prior to joining UNICEF Lao PDR, Mr. Durrani’s recent assignments included the UNICEF Country Representative to the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, and the Head of UNICEF’s South Korea Office.

He brings to this role more than two decades of experience in international development, working with UN agencies and international and local NGOs at the Headquarters level in Europe and North America as well as in complex development, emergencies and post-conflict settings in Asia and Africa.

With strong evidence-based technical programmatic knowledge, he is experienced in leading and managing diverse and geographically dispersed teams and large-scale budgets, and specialize in partnership-building, fundraising, project management, and monitoring and evaluation – through innovative result-based programming, and human-centred approaches.

Mr. Durrani is the recipient of several national and international awards, including the Order of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, the highest national award, by the President, in recognition of outstanding services and contributions to the children of Timor-Leste. He was also the recipient of the Republic of Korea National Assembly award, by the President of the Parliamentary Committee on Children, Population and Environment.

Mr. Durrani holds a Master’s Degree in International Development from the International Institute of Social Studies, the Netherlands; a Master’s in International Public Policy from the Central European University, Austria; and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Bahria University, Pakistan.

A national of Pakistan, he is married and has two children.