Secretary-General appoints Stephen O’Malley of Canada as the United Nations Development Coordinator* in Kosovo**

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Stephen O’Malley of Canada as the United Nations Development Coordinator in Kosovo. He took up his post on 2 August 2025.  

Mr. O’Malley has over 25 years of experience in humanitarian and development work. He most recently served as the United Nations Resident Coordinator ad interim in Kazakhstan from November 2024 to June 2025.  

Prior to that, he was Director of the Peer-2-Peer Project, an initiative of the Interagency Standing Committee’s Emergency Directors Group, which provides peer support to humanitarian coordinators and humanitarian country teams. He concurrently served as Deputy Director a.i., Africa I in the Operations and Advocacy Division of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), having previously served as Deputy Director a.i. for Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Mr. O’Malley held other leadership positions in OCHA, including Head of Office for OCHA South Sudan. He was also Head of the COVID-19 Team, Deputy Director of the Coordination and Response Division, and Chief of the Central Emergency Response Fund Secretariat in New York. From August 2013 to August 2018, he was the United Nations Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for Barbados and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. 

Prior to joining the United Nations, Mr. O’Malley worked with the nongovernmental organization Médecins sans Frontières in Africa, Europe and North America. He started his career in the private sector with Decima Research in Toronto, Canada.  

He holds a Master of International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, USA, a Master of Arts in Political Studies, and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from Queen’s University, Canada.  

He is married and has two daughters. 

* The Development Coordinator in Kosovo leads and coordinates the United Nations Kosovo team (UNKT) to support progress towards sustainable development in Kosovo, anchored around the Sustainable Development Goals. The Development Coordinator ensures effective coordination of the UNKT's work with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

** All references to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999).