The Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator

On 13 September 2007, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Catherine Bragg of Canada as Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator (ASG/DERC) for OCHA.

The ASG/ DERC is the principal advisor to the USG/ERC, with an emphasis on key policy and management issues. The ASG/DERC supports the USG/ERC in the discharge of her responsibilities as the Secretary-General's main adviser on humanitarian issues.  The ASG/DERC also exercises a managerial overview of OCHA, ensuring effective cooperation between New York, Geneva and the field, and coordinates the OCHA Senior Management Team (SMT) work process.

Catherine Bragg's Biography

Ms. Bragg was the Director-General of the Humanitarian Assistance, Peace and Security Programme in the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) from 2004. She was the Chair of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Donor Support Group in 2007 and a member of the Advisory Group of the Central Emergency Response Fund in 2006-2007.

Her distinguished 24-year career in the Federal Public Service in the Government of Canada includes executive assignments in the Privy Council Office, formulating policy advice to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet; in the Department of National Defence, working on human resource issues; and in the Department of Justice, on evaluation, strategic planning and aboriginal justice.

Ms. Bragg holds a PhD in Criminal Justice from the State University of New York in Albany, an MPhil in Criminology from the University of Cambridge and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Toronto.

Born in 1953 in Hong Kong, she is married and has two children.