Dr. Luay Shabaneh is the Representative of UNFPA Pakistan. Prior to his current appointment, he served as the Regional Director of UNFPA for the Arab States since 2016.

A native of Palestine, Dr. Luay has held several high-profile national and international public service positions over the last two decades in official statistics, population census, population and development, monitoring and evaluation, programme management and advocacy within the UN System, in government and in the multilateral arena.

He served as chief statistician of Palestine from 2005 until he started his UN career in 2009 with both UNDP/UNCT and UNFPA in Iraq, and the Regional Office for Arab States since 2015 as the Regional Adviser for Population Data and Policies in ASRO. Within the Arab region, he served as chair or member of several regional professional and research committees, including the Statistical Committee of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, the Arab regional statistical forum and the board of the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics. Dr. Luay started his professional career at Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics where he worked from 1994 to 2005 and was appointed President.

Dr. Luay holds a PhD in Applied Social Statistics from Lancaster University, UK, a Master’s Degree in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Jordan and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Baghdad University.