UNICEF Representative
Since October 2020, Maria Luisa Fornara began her tenure as UNICEF Representative in Mozambique.
- Available in:
- Português
- English
I look forward to working with the Government and our many development partners to advance children’s rights.
Maria Luisa Fornara – UNICEF Representative, Mozambique
Presentation of Credentials – 23 October 2020
Ms. Fornara is UNICEF Representative in Mozambique since August 2020 after serving as UNICEF Representative in Haiti from August 2, 2018. There she led and managed the Country Programme in both humanitarian and development settings.
From 2015 to July 2018 Maria Luisa served as UNICEF Representative in Peru where she managed the design and implementation of the 2017-2021 Country Programme with a particular focus on the most vulnerable children, particularly from indigenous populations.
From 2009 to 2015, she was the Representative of UNICEF Tunisia. During that period while Tunisia was transitioning towards democracy, she contributed to focusing the country´s national efforts on public policies of promotion and protection of the rights of Tunisian children.
I am excited in joining UNICEF in Mozambique at a crucial stage in the country’s development, notably in the preparation of the new Programme of Cooperation between the Government of Mozambique and UNICEF 2022-2026.
Prior to her position as Representative, Maria Luisa Fornara was UNICEF Deputy Representative in Tunisia and Serbia. She has a wide range of work experience in international cooperation; she was a program officer at UNDP, a consultant for the World Bank in Lebanon, and a researcher at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI).
UNICEF’s Representative holds a master’s degree in Social Sciences from the Ecoles de Hautes Etudes in Paris (1994), a diploma in Public Policies and Promotion of Child Rights from Maastricht University in Holland (2007), and has completed studies and specializations from Oxford Policy Management and the Institute of the World Bank.
Italian by birth, Ms. Fornara is fluent in Italian, English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. She also has a basic knowledge of Arabic.
Ms. Fornara is married and a mother of 3 children.
