Africa ahead.
Listen. Understand. Act.

Alessandra Morelli

Former delegate of the United Nations Refugee Agency

Alessandra Morelli has devoted over 30 years of her career to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). She is professionally trained in emergency management in high-risk conflict zones, as well as in humanitarian dialogue and mediation with various governments, NATO, international and local NGOs, intergovernmental organisations and civil societies in different countries.


Throughout her career, she has played a key role in coordinating humanitarian negotiations and responses, guaranteeing protection and assistance to refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees in some of the world's most fragile and unstable regions. Alessandra Morelli has served in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Albania, Kosovo, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Western Sahara, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Georgia, Yemen, Myanmar, Somalia and Greece, which has welcomed over a million people fleeing war and violence. Her last engagement in 2021 was in Niger, where she led a complex operation in the heart of the Sahel, a region hard hit by the war against terrorism and climate change.


Alessandra Morelli concludes her career with the United Nations in 2021, choosing to return to Italy. In an era marked by societal complexities, she has embarked on a journey Topic centered on the "economics of care". This reflection, rooted in experience and aimed at young people and adults alike, focuses on the practice of care as a humanising force within society, generating awareness of our shared humanity and the ethical value of otherness and solidarity. It disseminates this reflection through conferences, public meetings, articles and academic lectures.