Olcay Unver[Deputy-Director of Land and Water Division Fao]

Olcay Ünver is the Deputy-Director of Land and Water Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) since September 2013. His responsibilities at FAO include the water, land and soil related activities and programs, mainstreaming water across the various sectors and disciplines, and cooperating with partners and stakeholders within and outside the United Nations system.  Between 2007 and 2013 he served as the Coordinator of the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme and the Director of the UNESCO Programme Office on Global Water Assessment. Prior to that, he was a distinguished professor of water resources at with Kent State University, Ohio, where he founded the Euphrates-Tigris Initiative for Cooperation (ETIC), a track-two program that aims to support and strengthen the cooperation efforts between Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. While he was the president of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) Regional Development Administration in Turkey, he transformed a large infrastructure project into a sustainable socioeconomic development program. Because of his accomplishments at GAP, he was featured in New York Times in 1997 and was named “a European Visionary” by the Time Magazine in 1999. Mr. Ünver has taken up leadership duties in various international organizations such as a Board Member and the Treasurer of the World Water Council (1995-2003); Vice-President and Secretary-General of the International Water Resources Association (2001-2006), and a council member of the International Hydropower Association (1997-2000). Mr. Ünver holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and Master's and Bachelor's degrees, also in Civil Engineering, from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. 

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