As part of a major expansion initiative for the International Humanitarian City (IHC) approved by Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, last month, Giuseppe Saba, a leading logistics expert with extensive experience with the United Nations, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer with effect from March 4, 2017.

Chairperson of the IHC HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced Saba's appointment. "There is no one in the global aid community with a stronger background in logistics than Giuseppe Saba.  We are so fortunate to have him.  He was instrumental in the founding of the United Nation's system of Humanitarian Response Depots (UNHRD), which HH Sheikh Mohammed has so generously supported, and he will guide us in expanding and improving the IHC in the years ahead."

For more than a decade, Saba served as head of the UNHRD, which has aid depots in Italy, Malaysia, Ghana, Panama and Spain, in addition to the IHC, which is the largest member of the system. These depots have been engaged in delivering aid in crises as diverse as earthquakes in Pakistan and Haiti, droughts in eastern and southern Africa, and the ongoing civil conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.  Earlier in his career, Saba held a high-level position in logistics with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and served in both logistics and the health sector with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Italy.  

Saba joined the staff of the IHC on December 4, 2016 to help develop an ongoing restructuring programme leading to the expansion plans and strategy recently approved by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.