Annie Demirjian is the Director of Glendon School of Public & International Affairs, York University, Toronto, Canada. From 20014-2015, she was the Director of Political Affairs & Mediation Group at the UN Mission in Somalia (UNSOM). She was responsible for the peace building and state building portfolio, including: military/civilian interface & stabilization, political reform, state formation (federal/state), conflict prevention & local reconciliation and constitutional review. From 2004-2013 working with the UN Missions in the field, she headed UNDP’s Democratic Governance portfolio in Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Eastern European countries & Central Asia. At UNDP-Iraq (2004-2007), Somalia (2008-2009) and Libya (2011-2012) she was responsible for transitional administration, the constitution drafting process, elections, institutional development and capacity building, public administration reform, local governance and civil society development. In 2010, she was seconded to Haiti to lead the Post Disaster Needs Assessment for the UNDP/World Bank after the earthquake in Haiti.
Annie has 20 years of senior management experience in policy and programming, with the Federal Government of Canada (central agencies/line departments, including at the Security Intelligence & Review Committee (SIRC)). For the United Nations and the World Bank she also worked in the following countries: Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine Zimbabwe, South Africa and Nigeria.