Derk Segaar

Derk Segaar has been the acting Chief of the Communications Services Branch in New York since December 2012. Mr. Segaar oversees the development and implementation of OCHA’s public advocacy campaigns and a wide range of communications products, platforms and channels. They include OCHA’s websites, social media and the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN).

Mr. Segaar was the Deputy Chief of Staff for the current and previous Under-Secretaries-General for Humanitarian Affairs: Valerie Amos and John Holmes.

Mr. Segaar has extensive field experience in Darfur, South Sudan, Somalia and Kenya. He was responsible for humanitarian access negotiations with all armed groups in North Darfur from 2007 to 2009 and served as the Acting Head of OCHA offices around Darfur, including El Fasher, Zalingei, El Geneina and Nyala.

He also worked as a journalist in Africa and for various advocacy organizations and think tanks in the Netherlands, and at New York University and Columbia University.

Mr. Segaar holds a Masters in Human Geography from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York. He was awarded a Fulbright and a Columbia University scholarship.