Samman Thapa

Regional Adviser on Social Policy and Social Protection, UNICEF

Samman J. Thapa is the Regional Adviser for Social Policy at UNICEF’s MENA Regional Office. In this function, which he assumed in July 2019, he is responsible for technical leadership of UNICEF's Social Policy agenda (including social protection) covering 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Previously, he was Chief of Social Policy and Child Rights Monitoring at UNICEF Myanmar where led efforts to support the rollout Myanmar’s first ever national cash transfer for pregnant women and children, as well as Public Financial Management capacity strengthening of social sector ministries. Prior to that, he had worked with UNICEF’s Regional Offices in MENA and EAP as well as COs in Viet Nam and Cambodia focusing on social protection, public finance, social accountability and real time monitoring. A national of Nepal, he has an MA in International Development and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).