IOM Regional Office Vienna for South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The Regional Office in Vienna is one of eight IOM Regional Offices worldwide and is tasked with providing strategic guidance and programmatic, administrative and technical support to IOM missions in South-Eastern Europe, including Turkey, Eastern Europe and Central Asia as well as Israel. It is responsible for project review and endorsement, policy development and also for formulating regional migration strategies. This is done in partnership with governments, development partners and civil society organizations within the region. The Regional Office employs technical experts in project development and thematic fields of migration management, including Migrant Assistance, Labour Migration and Human Development, Immigration and Border Management. It also deals with various cross-cutting issues and provides support in the field of resource management. The Regional Office in Vienna additionally maintains liaison with Vienna-based international organizations, which include the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).

The organigram for the IOM Regional Office Vienna can be found here.

The Regional Office Vienna is led by Renate Held. Prior to assuming her functions in Vienna, she was the Regional Representative for the Andean States in South America and from 1998 through 2000 held the position of Regional Representative for Western Europe and the Baltic States at IOM Brussels, covering EU liaison and fundraising. Between these assignments, for a period of ten years, Renate Held was Inspector General at IOM Headquarters in Geneva, in which capacity she dealt with a broad range of financial, administrative and project issues. From 1987 until 1998 she held various positions in IOM Bonn and participated in IOM operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Northern Iraq, Tanzania and Mozambique. Renate Held has completed studies of Business Administration and holds a Master Degree in Social Science.

Renate Held, Regional Director