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IUCN Asia comms chief Ann Moey joins UN Refugee Agency in Singapore

UNHCR’s new partnerships manager says that while there is a lot of wealth in Singapore, donors are still new to giving to international organisations and there’s a lack of awareness of the plight of refugees.

Ann Moey is the new Singapore private sector partnerships manager at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She says while there is a lot of wealth in Singapore, donors are still "very new to cross-border giving". Image: Anne Moey

By Robin Hicks

2 minute read April 10, 2020

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has appointed Ann Moey as private sector partnerships manager in Singapore.

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The Singaporean joins with a brief to mobilise resources from Singapore-based companies, foundations and high net-worth Individuals to support an organisation dedicated to saving the lives and protecting the rights of refugees around the world.

Some 97 per cent of UNHCR’s funding comes from voluntary contributions from government, corporate, foundations and individual donors, but Moey is cognisant of the challenge of raising funds for refugees in Singapore.

“Raising funds and tackling philanthropy in Singapore is very unique,” Moey told Eco-Business. “Donors are still very new to working with international organisations and supporting initiatives overseas, especially when it is related to refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. My immediate priority is to build trust with prospective donors and to let them know what we are capable of achieving on the ground together with our partners.”

Moey moves into the role after more than five years with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a Switzerland-based nature conservation non-profit.

Moey was prevously IUCN’s head of communications for Asia based in Bangkok, where IUCN is regionally headquartered, and she has moved to Singapore to take on the job with UNHCR.

Over a 15-year career in the public and private sector mainly in communications, she has worked in Laos with IUCN, renewables firm Sunlabob, and the Lao Football Federation, and in Singapore with Mercy Relief, a charity that helps communities hit by disasters, and as a journalist for Singapore Press Holdings.

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