Alan Doss is a former Under Secretary General of the United Nations. He worked on UN development, humanitarian and peacekeeping issues for more than four decades.

He represented the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in various African and Asian countries, opening UNDP offices in Vietnam and China. Later he coordinated the multi-agency UN Development Group at UN Headquarters, set up to enhance the cohesion and effectiveness of UN development operations. Subsequently, he was appointed as deputy special representative of the Secretary General for UN peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire and then as the Special Representative of the UN missions in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

After his retirement from the UN, Alan joined the Kofi Annan Foundation, later becoming the President of the Foundation.

Alan stepped down from the Foundation in 2020, but continues to support international efforts to promote peace and development as Chair of the Advisory Board of the Peace Division of UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and as a board member of INTERPEACE, the Geneva-based peacebuilding organisation.

In 2021 he published A Peacekeeper in Africa: Learning from UN Interventions in other People’s Wars, which The Financial Times described as “a vivid personal memoir, and a deeply informed reflection on the international community’s role in ending deadly conflicts in Africa.”