Ralf Südhoff has been founding director of the Centre for Humanitarian Action (CHA) since January 2019. He heads the research project on the policy and strategic capacities of German humanitarian actors. He also focuses on the Syrian crisis and the MENA region, on humanitarian reform and donor policies, on global food security and the Humanitarian-Development-Peace-Nexus.
Before joining CHA, Ralf was Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Bureau for the Syria Crisis in Amman (2017-2018). Prior to that, he was Director of the WFP Office in Berlin for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein for almost 10 years. In addition, Ralf was Head of External Relations of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Bonn and advisor to Ms Uschi Eid, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. As a journalist, Ralf worked as South American correspondent for the weekly newspaper Die ZEIT in Rio de Janeiro and as editor in charge of the commentary & analysis section of the Financial Times Deutschland. Ralf served as a member of the Oxfam Germany’s management board for 10 years.