Alan Doss

Alan Doss
Alan Doss - Executive Director of The Kofi Annan Foundation

Alan Claude Doss, who is British, spent his entire professional life in the service of the United Nations working on peacekeeping, development and humanitarian assignments in Africa, Asia and Europe as well as at United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

Doss was brought up in Cardiff, Wales. He graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is married to Soheir Doss. They have three daughters and two granddaughters.

Doss's early appointments included posts as UN Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Benin and the Democratic Republic of the Congo responsible for UN operational activities in those countries. In 1977, he had developed the first UNDP cooperation program for Vietnam. In 1979, he was appointed as Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in China opening of the first international development cooperation program and office in that country.

Doss then served as United Nations Resident Coordinator and Regional Representative of the UNDP in Bangkok, Thailand. At the same time, he was Director of the United Nations Border Relief Operation (UNBRO), in charge of United Nations assistance to hundreds of thousands of displaced Cambodians on the Thai-Cambodia border. During this period he was also the UN representative to the Mekong River Committee that manages South East Asia’s greatest river network and was part of the negotiating team that restructured the institution into an inter-governmental commission with the re-admission of Cambodia to the group.

He was then appointed Director of the UNDP European Office in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was charged with strengthening UNDP’s outreach and fund raising work in Western Europe, focusing on advocacy for human development. He concurrently represented the UNDP at the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris where he was member of the group that drew up the DAC’s landmark study on conflict, peace and development cooperation in 1997.