Our team in Serbia

Ms. Rikanovic has more than 20 years of professional experience with international organizations in the Western Balkans and Tajikistan, including UN organizations, World Bank and EU initiatives, where she has been leading diverse, complex and multi-sector programmes. This included the Women Economic Empowerment portfolio in Serbia and MNE where her engagement in the area of women's labour rights and gender-based discrimination was featured as the model programme of the economic empowerment of women inclusive of CSOs and local communities. She developed gender responsive governance portfolio in UN Women, where she initiated the programme at the local level and started the process of gender mainstreaming of the EU assistance and accession process and sectoral strategies and budgets.

Mr. Protic has been the National Coordinator of the ILO in Serbia since 2008, responsible for the ILO’s representation in Serbia and implementation of the ILO Decent Work Country Programme.

Prior to joining ILO, Jovan worked for the UNDP as the Project Manager in charge of the drafting of the National Sustainable Development Strategy of Serbia on 2005-08.

From 2003-05 he worked as the Coordinator of the Reform of the Labour Inspectorate of Serbia, and for the UNDP as the Project Manager of the Capacity building of the Ministry of Labour and Employment of Serbia in 2002-03.
Jovan holds BA in Economics from the University of Belgrade and BSc in Politics & International Relations from the University of London and two MAs in Economics of European Union from the College of Europe, Bruges, and in Law and Economics, Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade. He is currently pursuing his PhD studies of Labour Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade.

Ms. Markovic has been Head of Office for IOM Serbia since 2012 and she holds a Master of International Relations from Belgrade University in Serbia. Over the course of her extensive IOM career she has been dealing with many areas of migration management, project development and coordination of regional initiatives in the field of migration. Prior to being appointed as IOM Serbia Head of Office, she was managing refugee resettlement programs, housing of refugees and internally displaced persons projects, programs aimed at combatting trafficking in human beings, programs of assisted voluntary return and reintegration, as well as programs providing psychosocial support.

IOM Serbia has actively supported Government of Serbia in all its migration related efforts.

Michela brings a wealth of expertise in humanitarian affairs, conflict analysis and resolution, team management in insecure environments. Prior to joining UNOPS, she held various senior positions as country director with the ICRIC in conflict-affected countries in Africa, Latin American and Asia. She also worked in the humanitarian policy and advocacy sectors in the UK and Canada, and in the financial sector in the City of London.

Michela holds a PhD in International Relations, a Doctorate in Languages and Literature and a Masters degree in Development Studies. Her research interests include international relations, the link between development and security, and Security Sector Reform.

She is fluent in English, Italian, French, and Spanish.

Throughout his career, Rakhmanin has dealt with key policy issues at global and regional levels, including assignments in Beijing, Washington D.C. and Moscow.

From 2002 to 2006 he served as Ambassador of Russia to Ireland.

Prior to joining FAO in January 2014, he was deputy head of the Energy Charter Secretariat in Brussels.

Mr Stojanovic has been working with the UNODC since 2010 as a Regional Drug Demand Reduction Manager based in Belgrade, Serbia covering the region of South Eastern Europe. In this position Milos is supporting the implementation of two UNODC Global Programmes - Prevention of drug use, HIV/AIDS and crime among young people through family skills training programmes in low- and middle-income countries; and UNODC-WHO Programme on Drug Dependence Treatment and Care as well as coordinating the implementation of drug demand reduction portfolio of the UNODC Regional Programme for SEE in the capacity of Regional Drug Demand Reduction Advisor. He is currently acting as the Head of the UNODC Programme Office in Serbia. He holds a degree of a Dr of Dental Medicine and a MA degree in Public Health.

Aleksandra Siljic Tomic started her professional career in the development of EEA environmental core set of indicators for the Western Balkan region. She has also contributed to various fields of the regional efforts of ENVSEC Initiative, such as environmental remediation for mining legacies and climate change. She joined UN Environment in 2015, having a significant role in the preparation of the GEF funded project addressing land degradation in Serbia, later to assume the position of national project coordinator for projects and initiatives implemented by UN Environment in Serbia at both national and local level. Ms. Siljic Tomic holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering.

Ms. Pickup has been the UNDP Resident Representative in Serbia since May 2019. She was previously the UNDP RR ai in India and prior to that Country Director in India. Ms. Pickup served as Deputy Country Director of UNDP Indonesia from 2016-18. In India and Indonesia, she successfully established new innovative financing initiatives and engagement with the private sector on SDGs. She also worked as the Strategic Planning Advisor at UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Asia & Pacific, based in New York (2012-16). Between 2008-12, she was Advisor to the Deputy Special Representative to the Secretary General for Iraq and headed a UN Inter-Agency Information and Analysis Unit in Iraq.

Ms. Pickup joined the UN in 2002, working with OCHA for 5 years, as well as UNSCO, FAO and ILO in New York, in Central Asia, Palestine and Lebanon. She has also worked with Amnesty International, Oxfam and the World Bank.

Ms. Pickup received her undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University and her Masters and PhD in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.

Ms. Jacob brings 24 years of experience in humanitarian and development work, including 10 years of service to the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Asia/Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. For the past two years, she has served as UNOPS representative to the EU institutions in Brussels. Prior to that, she was the UNOPS director for South Asia (2011-2017). She held management positions with UNOPS, UNRWA, ECHO(EU), NGOs and the private sector in Afghanistan, the Middle East, East Timor, Sudan, Montenegro, Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

She holds a Master of Business Administration from ESSEC, in Paris.

Regina De Dominicis is UNICEF’s Representative in Serbia. Previously, she was UNICEF’s Representative in Morocco, where she led the expansion of the programme targeting early years and adolescence. Mrs De Dominicis has worked in Turkey as a Deputy Representative and played an important role in the development of a strategic partnership with the European Union for the CEE-CIS region.

Prior to joining UNICEF, De Dominicis worked at the European Commission, serving mainly in Western Balkans, including in the Kosovo emergency.

She has also worked in the private sector in Canada in public relations and corporate social responsibility.

Mrs De Dominicis holds a Master’s degree from the European College in Bruges and a Laurea di Dottore in Political Sciences cum laude from LUISS University, Rome.

Prior to his appointment to Serbia, Dr Ivanusa was WHO Representative and Head of Country Office Georgia (2016-19), Head of WHO CO Slovenia (2007-16) and acting head of WHO CO Bulgaria (2014).

Prior to joining WHO, Dr. Ivanusa also worked in private sector for years and advanced his knowledge and experiences in pharmacotherapy, pharmaco-vigilance, pharmaco-economics, and clinical trials as well as in management and communication skills. He also worked as medical doctor in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Dr. Ivanuša graduated as Medical Doctor at the University of Ljubljana. He is the author of several articles published in peer-reviewed journals and two books.

A national of Turkmenistan with over 20 years of experience working with UN system. Prior to her current assignment, she worked as Programme Specialist in the Policy and Standards Division, as Special Assistant to the Deputy Executive Director, and as Programme Specialist in the Division for Oversight Services at UNFPA HQ.

She also served in the geographical divisions for Arab States, Europeand Central Asia, and conducted oversight and programme support missions in Sudan, India, Vietnam, Turkey and Central Asia. Aynabat holds MD in Internal Medicine from the Turkmen State Medical University and MSc in Demography and Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She published and contributed to over 15 works on medicine, public health and international development.