At its meeting of 21 June 2024, the Assembly of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) elected Ms Anjos Sapina as its newest member. Ms Sapina will take up her function on 29 August.
Ms Sapina is an experienced leader in the humanitarian sector. She is widely recognized for her abilities in managing and coordinating operations, humanitarian diplomacy and global affairs, and cooperation within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
After graduating at the European University of Lisbon in 1983, Ms Sapina began her career in Geneva's banking sector in 1984, before joining the ICRC in 1990. Over the following three decades, she held various managerial positions within the organization, both in the field and at headquarters. Ms Sapina retired from the ICRC in 2021 and lives part of the year in Switzerland and part of the year in Portugal, the country in which she was born and now volunteers for several organizations.
In 1990, Ms Sapina completed several field assignments as an ICRC delegate, for example, in Mozambique, Somalia and Sri Lanka. From 1994 to 1997, she worked as an independent consultant, working closely with the leadership of several National Red Cross Societies to develop their organizations' capacities.
In 1998, Ms Sapina rejoined the ICRC and, acting as head of the Division for Policy and Cooperation within the Movement until 2007, succeeded in leading the ICRC to engage more with its natural, local Movement partners during humanitarian operations. While in this role, she also supervised the drafting of ICRC and Movement policy, and its implementation at the operational and global levels.
From 2007 to 2020, Ms Sapina held several positions in the Office of the Director of Operations, including regional director for the Americas and deputy director for global affairs. During this time, she worked on the ICRC's strategic anchoring and on protecting medical services (the Health Care in Danger initiative).
The Assembly, composed of between 15 and 25 members of Swiss nationality, is the supreme governing body of the ICRC. It oversees all the organization's activities, determines its institutional strategy, and approves its general policy documents, objectives and budget.
