Mr. Mohamed El Zarkani serves as the UN Representative to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the highest-ranking UN official of the UN development system in Saudi Arabia. In his current role, Mr. Elzarkani leads the UN s strategic engagement with the Government of Saudi Arabia, the private sector, academia, and non-profit sector to advance the Sustainable Development Goals in alignment with Saudi Vision 2030. He also coordinates the work of 28 UN agencies, funds and programs in Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Elzarkani has more than 18 years of experience in sustainable development, local economic development, international cooperation, research and innovation, labour market reforms, and migration environment and climate change, migration and development, human mobility management, policy development, and the coordination of operational activities for development by the UN system.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Elzarkani held senior roles in various countries in the region. He served as the UN Representative (interim) in the Kingdom of Bahrain from November 2020 until April 2022 and as the Chief of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), where he was responsible for providing technical assistance to the Government of Bahrain. He technical cooperation programmes with the Human Rights Commission in Saudi Arabia and the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization in the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Elzarkani also worked with the IOM in Egypt and Kuwait as the head of community stabilization and human development and labour mobility programmes. In addition, Mr. Elzarkani worked with UNDP in Egypt as the national coordinator of a Local Economic Development Programme.
Prior to working in the UN system, he worked with Nahdet El Mahrousa, an Egyptian nongovernmental organization focusing on promoting a culture of research and development for Egyptian youth.
Mr. Mohamed El Zarkani is a national of Egypt and holds Relations from Webster University in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He is fluent in English and Arabic. Mohamed is married and has two children.