Partnership Officer at UN Somalia

Barbara Ratusznik is the Partnerships Officer in the UN Integrated Office of the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator (DSRSG/RC/HC) for Somalia. She has played a pivotal role in coordinating actors working across the three priority areas for Somalia of Environment and Water Management, Durable Solutions, and Anti-Corruption, including identifying linkages and opportunities for collaboration across the UN’s humanitarian and development programmes.
 
More broadly, Barbara plays a critical role in facilitating coordination across the UN in Somalia. As the Secretariat of the UN’s Programme Management Team, which supports the UN country team in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2021-2025), she has revitalized the forum to promote discussion and decision-making on cross-cutting programmatic issues. This has enabled the Programme Management Team to provide coordinated recommendations to the UN country team on improving Cooperation Framework implementation, including on mainstreaming environmental and climate-sensitive approaches across programmes. In addition, Barbara leads the UN’s annual Programme Criticality exercise to inform decision making on acceptable risk in programme delivery. 
 
Barbara also supports the DSRSG/RC/HC in mobilizing resources to support Somalia’s development efforts. She played a key role in organizing a joint League of Arab States – UN high level conference on drought and climate resilience in December 2022. The conference helped coordinate Arab and UN entities working on short- and long-term responses to the drought in Somalia.