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The Middle East Institute and the Foundation for Middle East Peace will welcome David Shearer, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem, for a breakfast briefing on the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.

David Shearer has served as the Head of the Jerusalem-based Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory since March 2003. Shearer has worked with the United Nations in Afghanistan (2002), Albania and Yugoslavia (1999), Rwanda (1996) and Liberia (1995). He also headed Save the Children (UK) operations in Sri Lanka (1989-1991), Iraq (1991), Somalia (1991-1992), Rwanda (1994) and led International Crisis Group's work in Sierra Leone in the period of 1995-1997.

From 1996-1999 Shearer served as a Research Associate with the International Institute of Strategic Studies, where he published extensively on conflict resolution and the rising prominence of private military companies. Shearer was political advisor to the New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2000 - 2002. He was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) by the British Government in 1992. During the second Lebanon war, Mr. Shearer was the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon and resumed his work as Head of the OCHA office in the oPt after his return from Lebanon.