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Roland Rich

Mr. Roland Rich, an Australian national, is Executive Head of the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), a United Nations General Trust Fund, with the primary purpose of supporting democratization around the world. Mr. Rich brings to the job more than 30 years of experience as a diplomat, a scholar and a democracy promotion practitioner.
Roland Rich

Officer-in-Charge, United Nations Office for Partnerships

Mr. Roland Rich, an Australian national, is Executive Head of the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), a United Nations General Trust Fund, with the primary purpose of supporting democratization around the world. It supports projects that strengthen the voice of civil society, promote human rights, and encourage the participation of all groups in democratic processes. Mr. Rich is concurrently Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP) which serves as a gateway for corporate and philanthropic partnership opportunities with the UN family.

Mr. Rich brings to the job more than 30 years of experience as a diplomat, a scholar and a democracy promotion practitioner. Prior to his appointment to UNDEF, Mr. Rich was at the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies of the Australian Defence College, teaching and mentoring colonel-level officers undertaking a master’s degree in international relations.

In 2005, Mr. Rich was a research Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC. Between 1998 and 2005, Mr. Rich was the Director of the Centre for Democratic Institutions at the Australian National University which is Australia’s democracy promotion institute for the Asia-Pacific region.

Mr. Rich joined the Australian foreign service in 1975 and had postings in Paris, Rangoon, Manila and, from 1994–1997, as Australian Ambassador to Laos.