Msingathi Sipuka

Expert
Strategic Advisor and Head of the Resident Coordinator’s Office, United Nations South Africa
South Africa

About Me: Mr Sipuka works for the United Nations in South Africa where he fulfils the role of Strategic Advisor and Head of the Resident Coordinator’s Office, based in Pretoria. His work primarily entails provision of support to the UN Resident Coordinator and the UN Country Team in South Africa on the overall coordination of the UN development system in the country. With a presence of 17 agencies in the country, the UN is pressured to reposition itself as a partner of choice of the Government and people of South Africa in the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals and in his role Mr Sipuka plays a pivotal role in promoting a system-wide approach to addressing national challenges.

Prior to this role he served as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advisor for South Africa, where he was responsible for the mainstreaming of the SDGs in South Africa and supporting government, civil society, labour and private sector SDG oriented initiatives. In the role Mr Sipuka, had the responsibility of (i) coordinating the UN Country Team’s overall contribution to SDG implementation in the country, (ii) including aligning UN Programmes to identified SDG Priorities. In the role he worked closely with the National Planning Commission in coordinating national government work on the SDGs.

Mr Sipuka has extensive private and public-sector experience in South Africa. His private sector experience has mainly been in the banking and FMCG sectors, where he has worked in various areas including Transformation and Knowledge Management. In the public sector his experience is mainly in local government, in the areas of institutional planning and performance, monitoring and evaluation.