Yin Yin Nwe is a Burmese geologist. She has held important positions with UNICEF since 1991, and was appointed UNICEF Representative to China on 1 December 2006.

Biography

Yin Yin Nwe was born to Sao Saimong Mangrai, a member of the princely Kengtung and a highly regarded scholar on Shan State

Shan State

Shan State is a state of Burma . Shan State borders China to the north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and five administrative divisions of Burma in the west. Largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km², almost a quarter of the total...

 and the Head of the Shan State Education Department during the post-Independence years and Daw Mi Mi Khaing

Daw Mi Mi Khaing

Mi Mi Khaing was a Burmese scholar and writer who authored numerous books and articles on life in Burma during the 20th century. She is notable as one of the first women to write in English about Burmese culture and traditions. Born of Mon ancestry, Mi Mi Khaing grew up during the British colonial...

, also a scholar and a former Principal of Kambawza School. Her father, Sao Saimong, had an administrative career after the Shan principalities agreed to become part of the Union of Burma, and was Chief Education Officer for Shan and Kayah State

Kayah State

Kayah State is a state of Myanmar. Situated in eastern Myanmar, it is bounded on the north by Shan State, on the east by Thailand's Mae Hong Son Province, and on the south and west by Kayin State. It lies approximately between 18° 30' and 19° 55' north latitude and between 94°40' and 97° 93' east...

s. Her mother was the author of Burmese Family, a book on Burmese culture and was one of the first women to write in English about Burmese culture and traditions. Yin Yin Nwe is of Mon

Mon people

The Mon are an ethnic group from Burma , living mostly in Mon State, Bago Division, the Irrawaddy Delta, and along the southern Thai–Burmese border. One of the earliest peoples to reside in Southeast Asia, the Mon were responsible for the spread of Theravada Buddhism in Burma and Thailand...

 ancestry on her mother's side and of Thai ancestry on her father's side, given that the people of Kengtung originated in the 13th century, when the Chiangmai dynasty founded a new kingdom which was named Lannathai, marking the Kengtung people as separate.

Yin Yin Nwe obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from Yangon University and later graduated in the Earth Sciences from the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

. She served for 19 years at the Geology Department of Yangon University.

In 1991, Yin Yin Nwe joined UNICEF  as an Environment Project Officer and from 1992 to 1994, she was UNICEF Programme Officer for Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Central Asian Republics and Albania. From 1994 to 1999, she worked a regional advisor for western and central Africa in Abidjan

Abidjan

Abidjan is the economic and former official capital of Côte d'Ivoire, while the current capital is Yamoussoukro. it was the largest city in the nation and the third-largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris, and Kinshasa but before Montreal...

, Côte d’Ivoire. In 1999, she was appointed UNICEF Regional Planning Officer for the Middle East and North Africa and in June 2005 appointed UNICEF Chief of Tsunami Support and did much work in Indonesia to help victims. She become the UNICEF Representative to China on 1 December 2006.

Personal life

She is fluent in English, French and Bahasa Indonesian and in 2006 was reported to be learning to speak Chinese fluently due to her new position. She has a son, born in 1980 (he was 26 when she assumed her position as UNICEF Representative to China in 2006).