Bo Viktor Nylund is a humanitarian and development practitioner who has served the most vulnerable children and families in different parts of the world throughout his career. BVN has master’s degrees in law and political science from Columbia University Law School and Abo Akademi University and a PhD in international law from the Geneva Graduate Institute for International Studies. BVN worked as a protection officer with the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva and Kenya/Somalia from 1994 to 1996. In 1998, he joined the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and has worked with the organization in the areas of senior management, child protection, corporate social responsibility, humanitarian policy and planning, and children’s rights based in Bangkok, Bujumbura, Colombo, Damascus, Geneva, Khartoum, Nairobi and New York. In 2010, he also supported the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the development of an Office-wide strategy for engagement in humanitarian action. Since August 2020, BVN serves as UNICEF’s Representative in Syria, leading programmes and operations reaching nearly 12 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. He leads a team of some 300 staff, managing an annual budget of approximately USD 220 million. In Syria, BVN has undertaken vital advocacy work to open new and unprecedented opportunities in child protection, education, health, nutrition, social protection as well as water and sanitation with the Government and non-state actors.
