Mira Ihalainen

Mira Ihalainen is the Director of the Department of Communications, Resource Mobilization and Partnerships (CRP) in the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), located in Cairo, Egypt and covering 22 countries and territories. In her current role Mira is responsible for leading optimization of the three enabling functions to serve WHO mandate in the region and the regional vision of Health for All by All, and coordinating the work of the regional CRP Network with internal and external stakeholders and partners.

Prior to this role, Mira has worked in a global advisory role in UNFPA New York headquarters, and in various programmemanagement, UN coordination and agency representative roles in the field in UNAIDS, UNICEF and UN Women.

Mira is a dual Finnish and Namibian citizen and has studied in the Universities of Helsinki (FIN) and Namibia, holding an MA in Political Studies, as well as degrees in Psychology and English.