Speaker Details

Dr. Renee van de Weerdt

Dr Renee Van de Weerdt, a native of Belgium, took up the post of WHO Representative in Somalia in February 2024. Prior to this, she was WHO Representative in Djibouti.

Dr Renee began her career as a medical coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières Belgium (1994–1998) with postings to various countries, namely the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Chad, Rwanda and Chechnya. She went on to serve as a medical officer in the WHO Polio department (1998–2004).

She then moved to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), initially as Chief of Health and Nutrition in Chad (2004–2006). Dr Renee went on to become Senior Health Adviser (Child Survival) in various UNICEF locations (2006–2007) and then Chief of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health at the UNICEF headquarters in New York, USA (2008–2013).

Dr Renee was then Senior Technical Advisor for Reproductive Health Commodities with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in New York (2013–2017).

She rejoined WHO in 2017 as Chief of Emergency Management and Support in the WHO Health Emergencies Programme.

She holds a medical degree from the University of Leuven, an MSc in epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an MBA from the University of Wales.