Giuseppe Saba

Author Archives: Giuseppe Saba

Appointed as CEO of Dubai’s International Humanitarian City (IHC) in early March 2017 and Member of IHC Board in April 2023, Giuseppe Saba brings more than 35 years of extensive experience in the humanitarian field within the International Cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United Nations and international organisations.

Saba is a leading logistics and support services expert. He is the founder of the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot Network (UNHRD); in 2000, he set-up under the UN World Food Programme (WFP) the first UNHRD in Brindisi, south-east of Italy, as a consortium of UN Agencies, International Humanitarian Organisations, Governmental and Non-Governmental Organisation.

Following the lessons learnt from the emergency response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, he developed and expanded UNHRD into the current network by opening hubs and negotiating agreements with various hosting governments in Dubai, Malaysia, Ghana, Spain and Panama. As a result of his efforts, UNHRD became one of the largest humanitarian organisations platform counting around 90 partners operating in emergency preparedness and response.

Saba is an Italian Citizen, born on the 29th of October 1951 in Ozieri (SS) Sardinia. He graduated as Professional Nurse in 1974, with specialisation for the Surgical Assistance in Operating Theatre in 1976 within the Hospital of Sassari. He is married and has two daughters, one living in Italy and the other one in Ireland. Since his retirement from the UN-WFP in 2013, he served as consultant to various humanitarian agencies including the Norwegian Refugee Council and the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre).
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