Oscar Fernández-Taranco has been Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support since November 2014. In this capacity, he heads the Peacebuilding Support Office, charged with enhancing system-wide coherence in support of peacebuilding and sustaining peace and partnerships with United Nations and non-UN stakeholders, oversees support to the Peacebuilding Commission, and manages the Peacebuilding Fund on behalf of the Secretary-General.
Immediately prior to this, he was Assistant Secretary-General in the Department of Political Affairs for five years, where he was responsible for overseeing the Department’s divisions dealing with the Americas, Asia and Pacific, Europe, Middle East and West Asia, and the Decolonization Unit and Division for Palestinian Rights.
Mr. Fernández-Taranco has worked in the United Nations system for over 30 years, both at Headquarters and in the field. He has served in various capacities during that period, including Deputy Special Representative of the Administrator in the West Bank Gaza Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Haiti, and Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Regional Bureau for Arab States. Mr. Fernandez-Taranco also served as Resident Coordinator in Tanzania where he led the UN reform initiative of “Delivering as One.”
Mr. Fernández-Taranco is a graduate of Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
