Raouf Mazou

Role

Country Representative, Kenya

Organization

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Raouf Mazou has served as Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kenya since September 2013. In the four years preceding this appointment, he was a Deputy Director in the Africa Bureau, covering the East and Horn of Africa Region. Other senior positions he has occupied in UNHCR include Deputy Director of the Division of Operations Support and Head of the Emergency and Security Service, a position where he oversaw UNHCR’s global emergency management and staff security interests.

Having served UNHCR for over 27 years, Mazou has worked in the field in many capacities, starting in the early 90s in the Great Lakes Region and subsequently in West Africa, in the context of the Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugee crises. He has garnered expertise in various areas of UNHCR’s activities, particularly in emergency response, repatriation and in the development of strategies aimed at bridging the gap between relief and development.

Mazou leads UNHCR’s engagement with the International Olympic Committee and the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation on the development of refugee athletes in Kenya. One major milestone was when five refugees residing in Kenya joined the Refugee Olympic Team at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.

The speakers

Using the unique power of sport to bring people together, the Olympism in Action Forum saw a range of global players, including Olympic Movement stakeholders, athletes, private and public sector leaders, NGO representatives, academics, artists and the media come together to talk on topical contemporary issues. Chosen because of their ability to effect change and their wide range of sometimes differing opinions, the speakers led lively debates and seeked to challenge received wisdom to inspire new ways of thinking.