Ambassador Madina Jarbussynova of Kazakhstan took up her post as OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine on 18 June 2012.

Ambassador Jarbussynova studied at the Kazakh State University of International Relations and the World Languages, Almaty, obtained her PhD degree at the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow (1977-80) and later studied at London University College and at the D. Kunayev University in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Ambassador Jarbussynova has held a number of senior posts with Kazakhstan’s governmental institutions, including the Central Youth Committee of Kazakhstan and the Parliament of Kazakhstan. In 1995-1998, she was the Head of the Multilateral Relations and International Organizations Department of the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan, and later (1998-1999) served as Vice Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan.

In 1999-2003, Ambassador Jarbussynova served as the Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the UN. Since 2003, she has been Ambassador-at-Large at the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan. In 2008-2012, Ambassador Jarbussynova represented the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS in the SOS Kinderdorf International senate in Vienna.

Ambassador Jarbussynova has been active in promoting human rights and gender equality: she was the Head of the Human Dimension Group in Kazakhstan’s OSCE Chairmanship Task Force in 2010. Earlier, she worked with the UNIFEM Advisory Board and was a member of the Bureau of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

Ambassador Jarbussynova speaks English, Russian and Kazakh. She is married with two children.