Filippo Grandi became the eleventh United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees on 1 January 2016. He has been engaged in international cooperation for more than three decades, primarily with the UN, and served in field operations in many of the major refugee and humanitarian crises of those years, including in Southeast Asia, the Great Lakes and Afghanistan. His previous appointments include Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. As High Commissioner he is head of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency, which leads the international response to refugee crises around the world, working with governments to ensure that refugees have access to protection and support, and helping find solutions to displacement and statelessness.