Born in the Waimea Plains south of Nelson, Douglas left New Zealand in 1976 to begin tertiary studies in Australia. He has gone on to work in Somalia, Rwanda, Croatia/Bosnia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Afghanistan and is currently in the Sudan.

Douglas first joined UNICEF in Afghanistan where he had been working during the Taliban era. When the late 2001 war subsided, there were huge opportunities for UNICEF's programme interventions in education, health care, and all aspects of protection and development for children.

Douglas headed UNICEF's office in Southern Afghanistan and led the turnaround of UNICEF's work in what had been the Taliban stronghold area - a place where children had been forbidden to sing or even play with toys, and where women had been subjected to draconian forms of social oppression.

By the end of 2003, Douglas returned to Somalia but this time heading UNICEF's Office in North Eastern Somalia. Still suffering from more than a decade of civil conflict and collapsed state syndrome, the Somali people relied heavily on UNICEF as one of the few organisations providing substantial assistance. Materials and services for health care, education, and safe water supply were in constant demand.

In a lawless society, resources can become inadvertently dangerous. Regretfully, in the wake of several foreign aid workers being targeted and killed, Douglas received death threats linked with attempts to manipulate the implementation of UNICEF's programmes. The safety of staff is given very high priority and so Douglas was withdrawn from Somalia and transferred to Sudan where UNICEF's work was scaling up in response to the Darfur crisis and the new prospects of peace in South Sudan.

Subsequently, Douglas has been appointed as Chief, Field Operations, at UNICEF South Sudan (formerly Operation Lifeline Sudan). He supervises the seven field offices through which UNICEF is able to address the basic development needs of children. After more than 20 years of civil war, the needs are enormous, but the new opportunities for making a difference are exciting.