Kinshasa, 2 November 2009 - Ross Mountain, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary
General in the Democratic Republic of Congo will leave the UN mission on November 6th 2009, after
five years in this position. As well as Deputy Special Representative, he has been the Resident
Coordinator of the United Nations System and the Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, as well as
the UNDP Resident Representative.

In these capacities, he supervised in 2006 the international support to the first democratic elections in the
DRC in over 40 years, which constituted the largest electoral assistance operation ever implemented by
the United Nations. As Humanitarian Coordinator, he managed one of the longest humanitarian
operations, introducing new approaches to ensure a more efficient distribution of aid to Congolese in
need. The funding of humanitarian assistance in the DRC increased five fold during his mandate to nearly
USD 600 millions, reaching 19 million beneficiaries in 2008. He played a leading role in the disarmament
campaign which helped bring peace to the Ituri district in the Northeast and launched key initiatives to
improve the protection of civilians in coordination with the MONUC military, including the Joint
Protection Teams. He established UNDP regional offices in 7 locations across the country to help
spearhead decentralised development, in particular through the creation of Provincial Development
Committees with provincial authorities.

Ross Mountain actively supported efforts by national authorities to stabilize Eastern DRC by initiating the
United Nations Support Strategy for Security and Stabilisation. This strategy now encompasses 15
programmes in support of the STAREC governmental plan, principally addressing the security sector and
the restoration of state authority, and funded to the extent of USD 136 millions. In partnership with
national authorities, he contributed to a focused programming of international aid and supported key
development initiatives to extend basic services to the population (health, education, etc.) and build on the
potential of the country, in particular to benefit from the preservation of its massive forests, within the
framework of international climate change negotiations.

With this assignment, Ross Mountain, from New Zealand, will end a 36-year career with the United
Nations, which has taken him, among other countries, from Afghanistan to Iraq, from Haiti to Liberia,
from Mozambique to East Timor and from Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories to the Democratic
Republic of Congo. With his longstanding experience in fragile states, Mr. Mountain has been a key
leader of the efforts of the international community in the DRC, as it helped the country steer away from
crisis towards recovery.

Ross Mountain leaves the United Nations to become the Director General of DARA, an independent
international organisation, based in Madrid, committed to improving the quality and efficiency of
development and humanitarian interventions through evaluation and technical assistance programmes.
Mr. Mountain's career with the United Nations spanned 36 years, in particular in the fields of economic
and social development and humanitarian affairs. The then Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Ross
Mountain as his Deputy Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 15
November 2004. Previously, from January to October 2004, he served as Deputy Special Representative
of the Secretary-General for Iraq and, additionally, as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General
ad interim from January to August 2004. He replaced Sergio Vieira De Mello, the UN Commissioner for
Human Rights, at the time serving as a Special Representative of the Secretary General in Iraq, who was
killed in Baghdad by a terrorist attack on the UN Headquarters on August 19, 2003. During this period, he
also served as United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator, and the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Iraq.

From August 1998 to December 2003, Mr. Mountain served as Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator
and Director of the Geneva Office of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
In this capacity, he served as Chair of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Working Group and served
as the Secretary-General's Special Representative on a number of humanitarian missions, including
during the East Timor crisis (1999), the floods in Mozambique (2000) and the humanitarian crisis in
Liberia (2003). He first visited the Democratic Republic of Congo in this capacity, to manage the
international humanitarian response following the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano in Goma, North
Kivu, in January 2002.

Prior to his appointment to OCHA, he served as United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP
Resident Representative in Lebanon from 1995 to 1998. His other United Nations assignments included
United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator in Haiti (1994-1995), United Nations Resident
Coordinator for the Eastern Caribbean (1993-1994), United Nations Special Coordinator for Emergency
Relief Operations in Liberia (1991-1993), UNDP Resident Representative a.i. in Afghanistan (1988-
1991), and UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in the South Pacific (1985-1988). He earlier worked in
Geneva as Chief of the Information Section of UNDP and Coordinator of the UN Non-governmental
Liaison Office which he founded. His first United Nations assignment was in 1973 as Inter-Agency
Youth Liaison Officer in the Division of Social Affairs in Geneva. Prior to this appointment, he worked
with several international non-governmental organisations based in Europe.