Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi is the Head of UNESCO Desk in Ukraine, since October 2022. She has over 25 years of professional experience with the Organization, mainly working in fragile states and emergency contexts. She has previously served as Executive Officer, Coordination and Partnership Officer at the Regional Office for Central Africa region (Yaoundé) (2018-2019, 2021-2022), Programme Coordinator of the Culture component of UNESCO’s flagship initiative ‘Li Beirut’ – (Beirut, Lebanon 2020/21) and Senior Advisor and programme coordinator in several UNESCO Field Offices, among which Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Mozambique, Namibia, among others. For Iraq, she served as Culture Programme Specialist-Secretariat of the International Coordination Committee IRAQ (2004-2005). In 2006, she established the UNESCO Antenna Office in Juba, South Sudan, where she then served as a Liaison Officer. For UNESCO she has contributed to strategic papers in the field of heritage protection.

Ms. Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi holds a P.hD. in cultural heritage, and is Professor of protection of archaeological sites and then of architectural preservation at the Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy). She is author of several scientific publications.