New Director General of the GRÓ Centre
Nína Björk Jónsdóttir has taken over from Friðrik Jónsson as Director General for GRÓ, Centre for Capacity Development, Sustainability and Societal Change. The GRÓ Centre serves as an umbrella for the four Iceland Programmes and is under the auspices of UNESCO - The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
Nína has been working for the Icelandic Foreign Service since 2005. Over the last two years she has been the Director for Business Services at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. From 2016-2019 she acted as Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of Iceland to EFTA, the WTO, UNOG and other international organisations in Geneva. She was posted to the Embassy of Iceland in Paris from 2012-2016, where she acted as Deputy Head of Mission (from 2013), Deputy Permanent Representative to the OECD, and from 2014 also to UNESCO and the Council of Europe. During the years 2009-2011, she worked in the Directorate for International affairs, particularly on climate change and gender. She took part in the UNFCCC negotiations on climate change, attended sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women, took part in preparing the first year of the GEST program of GRÓ and worked on Iceland’s National Action Plan for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. In 2005-2008, she worked on external trade, in particular on the running of the EEA Agreement.
Nína holds an MA in International Politics and Security Studies from Bradford University, as well as a Post-graduate diploma in Journalism and a BA in French and Political Science from the University of Iceland.
We welcome her abroad GRÓ and look forward working with her!