Noala Skinner

Noala Skinner took up her post as UNICEF Representative to the Republic of South Sudan in January 2025. Immediately prior to this appointment, she served as Deputy Regional Director for UNICEF in South Asia, based in Kathmandu, providing leadership support and oversight to UNICEF programmes in the eight countries of South Asia serving over 628 million children.

From 2017 to 2022, Ms Skinner was UNICEF Representative to Zambia, providing overall leadership in developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the UNICEF country programme. She has also served as a Director in UNICEF’s Public Partnerships Division based in Brussels, leading and coordinating UNICEF’s relationship with the European Union institutions (2015-2017), as well as Representative to Rwanda (2011-2015) and UNICEF’s first Representative to Montenegro (2007-2011).

Earlier in her career, Ms. Skinner specialized in education in her work for UNICEF, with various assignments including in Geneva, Kosovo, New York Headquarters, and Vietnam where she served as Chief of Education.
Prior to joining UNICEF, from 1994-1998 Ms Skinner was based at the Centre for History and Economics, King’s College, Cambridge, where she worked as a Research Associate with Common Security Forum (CSF), a network of academics and policymakers.

Ms. Skinner was born in Liverpool and is a national of the United Kingdom. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Queens' College, University of Cambridge, and a Master of Arts in Diplomacy and International Relations from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.