With an academic background (Ph.D.) from the Department of Education at the University of Copenhagen, Kristian Laubjerg has worked in key social sectors essential for human welfare, including health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation, agricultural extension, and slum upgrading. Within these sectors, he is particularly competent in the assessment of the capacities of organizations and in developing improved structures for more efficient and effective delivery of sustainable social services.

Over a period of more than 25 years of experience in the management of problems and issues related to planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of development programs, he has proven himself a skillful advocate of the policies of those organizations. he has represented, while effectively adapting them to national policies in low-income countries in Africa and Asia, thus leading to concrete results for improved living conditions for the most impoverished families and their children.

Kristian Laubjerg is a competent planner and has been responsible for the preparation of UNICEF Country Situation Analyses and subsequent development of five-year programs of development cooperation in several West and Central African countries. He began his African tour in Tanzania, where he was employed as a researcher to develop community- based water and sanitation programs, implemented by the Danish International Development Agency.

As team leader of Danida’s technical missions for project appraisals and reviews, and later as Head of UNICEF’s country offices, he has proven himself a competent negotiator. During his most recent experiences as UNICEF’s Area Representative for three countries in Central Africa, he provided leadership and technical support to good governance to enable governments to implement recommendations by the Human Rights Commission on Child Rights.

He has worked in Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Sao Tomé and Principé, and Equatorial Guinea. He speaks English, French, and Portuguese, besides his mother tongue – Danish. He reads and understands Swahili and Spanish. Throughout his career, he has emphasized community-based participatory approaches as an essential component for the promotion of good governance and the achievement of sustainable results.

As acting Resident Coordinator, Kristian Laubjerg successfully laid the foundation for integrated and joint programming, with other UN agencies, in close cooperation with bilateral partners in Gabon.

After he retired from the UN, Kristian Laubjerg founded a healthcare agency in Senegal. Here he oversees the provision of nursing services at the residences of individuals who have lost their autonomy.

He is married with four children.