Jeremy Konyndyk, who most recently served as a senior adviser to U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power, has become the new president of Refugees International.
Refugees International made the announcement on Wednesday, noting that Konyndyk has spent his career advocating for people who are displaced.
“The global refugee and asylum commitments enshrined following the second world war face growing risks — and the next decade will be pivotal to either safeguarding them or seeing them falter,” Konyndyk said in a press release.
“In recent years we have seen an abrupt weakening of global political support for refugees and asylum-seekers, increasing demagoguery and punitive treatment toward people seeking safety, and widespread attacks on humanitarian action,” he added. “Meanwhile the world’s outdated model of humanitarian relief is increasingly struggling to keep pace with overlapping emergencies.”
That’s why he says the work of Refugees International is more vital than ever. Founded in 1979, it advocates for refugees and people who were forcibly displaced by offering recommendations and research to the White House, U.S. Congress, United Nations, and governments around the world.
Konyndyk has a long history of working inside the U.S. government. In addition to spending the last two years as Power’s senior adviser and executive director of the USAID COVID-19 Task Force, he previously served as the director of USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and oversaw OFDA’s humanitarian programs and responses to global disasters.
That includes the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the war in Syria, the 2015 Nepal earthquake, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the conflict in South Sudan, and the 2016 drought in the Horn of Africa.
Power praised her former colleague in a statement. “Under Jeremy’s leadership, the COVID-19 Task Force managed more than $5 billion in American Rescue Plan funds across more than 120 countries to protect health workers and communities, improve public health surveillance systems, and facilitate quicker treatment of infected individuals,” she said, citing his work with other U.S. agencies to donate more than 620 million COVID-19 vaccines to more than 100 countries.
Konyndyk has also served stints at the Center for Global Development, Mercy Corps, and the U.S. State Department.
“Jeremy is a world-class leader and thinker on one of the most critical issues of our lifetime: the forced displacement of more than 100 million people worldwide — and the need for global policies that not only protect them but enable them to thrive,” said interim Refugees International President Maureen White in the release.
Konyndyk’s presidency of Refugees International will start in early 2023.
About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
