David Harland (born 28 September 1962 in Wellington) is a New Zealand diplomat who has been the executive director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), a Geneva-based foundation that specialises in the mediation of armed conflict, since 2011.
[7][8] HD was awarded the Carnegie Wateler Peace Prize for 2022 "for its more than 20-year track record in ending armed conflict and for its patient, creative and discreet approach”.
[12][13] Prior to that, Harland was adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)[14] and Chair of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Conflict Prevention.
Before joining HD, Harland was director of the Europe and Latin America Division of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (2006–2011), where he managed the end of the UN transitional administration in Kosovo.
[15] He served in UN peacekeeping missions in Haiti (2010),[16] in Kosovo (2008),[17] in Timor Leste (1999–2000), where he set up and oversaw what would be the first government departments,[18] and in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1993–1998), where he co-led (with the Office of the High Representative) the post-war effort to increase freedom of movement through the introduction of a new national license plate, which he designed.