Michael Keating (United Kingdom)
Michael Keating (born in 1959 in Kampala, Uganda), a native of the United Kingdom, is currently Associate Director, Research Partnerships[1] at Chatham House where he has initiated and directed a number of projects, for example on political transition in Afghanistan, and on natural resources, energy and humanitarian issues. Until the end of 2012 he served as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan as well as Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator. He was appointed to this position by Mr. Ban on 5 July 2011. His responsibilities include coordination of the UN system’s activities, engaging with and advising the Government, civil society and the international community, including ISAF, on issues such as reconciliation, economic development, governance, rule of law and disaster management.
A veteran in the United Nations system, Keating has held a variety of positions within the organization. Prior to his appointment as Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, he was Director of Development and Special Adviser to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan.
His other posts include Executive Director of the Africa Progress Panel in Geneva, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Malawi, Director of Socio-Economic Affairs in the Secretary-General’s Office for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO), in Jerusalem and Gaza.
He also served as Adviser to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York from 1999 to 2001 and as Adviser to the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan from 1997 to 1999.
Keating worked for the United Nations Office for Humanitarian and Economic Assistance to Afghanistan, initially as Executive Assistant to the newly appointed Under-Secretary-General, and then as Head of the Peshawar Field Office in Pakistan.
Keating joined the United Nations as Executive Assistant to the newly appointed Under-Secretary-General for the United Nations Office for Humanitarian and Economic Assistance to Afghanistan. He became the Head of the Peshawar Field Office in Pakistan afterwards.
Other activities: Trustee, the Ashden Awards for sustainable energy (London); Board Member, Population Action International (Washington D.C.); Chair of the Board, Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (Kabul); Ambassador, Theatre for a Change for fighting HIV/AIDS (London); former Associate Fellow, Chatham House, London; Fellow, Royal Geographical Society, and Field Officer for two RGS scientific expeditions; contributor to books and magazines including ‘The World Today’, The Geographical Magazine’, Sunday Telegraph; The Guardian, The Observer, etc; editor and co-author of ‘Aid Diplomacy and Facts on the Ground’ (Chatham House, London 2005); contributor to ‘Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban’; (C.Hurst & Co, 1998); Academic articles including ‘Counting the Cost of the Culture of Corruption: a Perspective from the Field’ in Pacific McGeorge Global Business & Development Law Journal 2007; along with G. Denning, J. Sachs and others, ‘Input subsidies to improve smallholder maize productivity in Malawi: Toward an African Green Revolution’ Public Library of Science, 2009.
Keating obtained his Master of Arts in history from the University of Cambridge. He is married and has four children.
References
he is appointed today November twenty fourth,twenty fifteen. as the UN Assistance head in Somalia.