From a life on the run to leading the charge for change – Mohamed Yahya’s path from refugee to the UN’s voice in Pakistan is a tale of longing and hope. A tale that he shares himselfs and inspires many.
Mohamed Yahya, the United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator in Pakistan, is a refugee from Somalia; he and his family can’t go home. He told Melissa Fleming, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, his story in this season’s second episode of ‘Awake At Night’, called “No place like home”.
A former child refugee, Mohamed Yahya knows the life-long pain of yearning for a lost home. That’s why some of his most emotional experiences with the UN have involved helping displaced people return to their towns years after they fled a brutal conflict. In his previous posting in Nigeria, he had the incredible privilege of helping whole communities return home to the north of the country, years after they had to flee from the militant group Boko Haram.
Mohamed Yahya became Resident Coordinator in Pakistan in 2024 and also serves as the UN Humanitarian Coordinator. He has more than 20 years of experience in development and peacebuilding. Prior to Pakistan, he served as the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Nigeria.
“We at the UN are in the business of hope and selling hope. Many things concern me, including climate risk. But we signed up to this job to work for the UN, to do what we do so that we can help the world. So it can be a better place for everybody, including my own daughter.”
“I’m really excited about this new job in Pakistan. I am tasked to work across the entire UN presence and be the Humanitarian Coordinator to support Pakistan’s development ambition, its acceleration to meet the SDGs, but also its ability to deal with climate induced crises such as flooding and other forms of climate-related impacts. So exciting times, I’m looking forward to that. And the UN has a huge presence in Pakistan.
