Rinko Kinoshita assumed her duties as UNFPA Representative in Angola on 07 August 2024.
Rinko has more than 20 years' experience in international development, with focus on maternal and child health, child and adolescent rights, planning, monitoring and evaluation and operational research. In recent years, she has held different management positions in Latin America and Africa. Prior to her arrival in Angola, she served as UNFPA Representative in Bolivia between 2020 and 2024.
Before moving to UNFPA, she held different positions at UNICEF for 14 years. In 2006, she was a Planning Specialist in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and a Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist in Goma, DRC, a conflict-affected area. Between 2008 and 2016, she worked as a Knowledge Management Specialist in UNICEF’s HQs in New York and as Deputy Representative for UNICEF-Nicaragua, where she also supported the office as the Acting Representative. In 2016, she took on the role of UNICEF Deputy Representative in Burkina Faso, where she led the implementation of programmes that ensured a nexus between humanitarian response, peacebuilding and resilience. In 2020, she supported UNICEF’s regional office for West and Central Africa in strengthening partnerships and mobilizing resources for six months, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to her career with the United Nations, she has worked as a researcher in the field of maternal and newborn health and HIV/AIDS in the DRC and Zambia. She took part in a research project on traditional birth attendants in Malawi as part of Save the Children's "Saving newborn lives" initiative.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Nursing, specialized in Midwifery. She worked as a nurse midwife in Tokyo, Japan, at the beginning of her career. Subsequently, she obtained a master's degree in Public health from the University of North Carolina (maternal and child health) and a second master's degree in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She completed a PhD in Public health, with focus on gender norms and early adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health, at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.
I am delighted to be able to work in this continent again, especially in Angola, a diverse country with important proportion of adolescents and young population. Together with the Government and partners, I look forward to contributing to fulfilment of sexual and reproductive rights, leaving no one behind.
