With effect from 1st May, Ms. Jacqueline Desbarats, former Chief of the Population and Development Section of UNESCAP’s Population and Rural and Urban Development Division has been appointed as UNFPA Representative for Somalia and UNFPA Country Director for Djibouti. She is based in Nairobi and can be contacted at desbarats@unfpa.org.
At Yangon, as of 1st May as well, Mr. Najib M. Assifi has been re-designated as UNFPA representative for Myanmar.

From Tokyo, news has come that Ms. Sumie Ishii Yamaguchi has been appointed as the new Executive Director of the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP). Ms. Ishii was the former Deputy Executive Director of the organization. She is taking over the responsibility from Mr. Yasuo Kon who has headed JOICFP for the last 14 years. Ms. Ishii will be supported by Mr. Ryoichi Suzuki, who is taking over the position of Deputy Executive Director.