Magdy Martínez-Solimán is Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, and UNDP’s Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support. Prior to this appointment he was the Deputy Director, Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP.
He is a lawyer by training, a former practicing barrister and Assistant Professor of International Law. He has worked and written on Political Systems and provided legal counseling in Constitutional and Administrative Law.
In his professional career, he has been State Secretary for Youth in the Spanish National Government, CEO of two public corporations and member of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games in Barcelona 92. He was also Deputy Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office, in charge of relations with the Parliament of Andalusia, and elected member of the Municipal Council of his hometown Malaga, the fourth city of the country.
Mr. Martínez-Solimán has been working for the UN for 20 years, focusing on electoral assistance, public financial management, democratic transitions and national dialogue. He was posted in Burundi, Togo, Bangladesh and Senegal. He was UNDP’s Senior Governance Adviser for the 18 West African countries from 2000 to 2003, and until 2006, he was the Practice Manager of UNDP’s Democratic Governance Team at Headquarters. That year he was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as the first Executive Director of the UN Democracy Fund.
From January 2008 until February 2012, he was the UN Resident Coordinator in Mexico and UNDP’s Resident Representative.
He is UNDP's senior focal point for the 2030 Agenda.
Mr. Martínez-Solimán initiated his Law Studies at the University Complutense of Madrid, holds a degree in Law (Juris Doctor) from the Universidad de Malaga and has been a Member of the Spanish Bar Association since 1984.