Machl, who has led the UN Country Team in Uzbekistan since July 2024, previously served as UN Resident Coordinator in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine and Indonesia, and headed UN Women offices on three continents. Her career began at the Austrian Foreign Ministry and the OSCE.
“The energy of moving forward”
When asked what has surprised her most since arriving in Tashkent, Machl pointed to the pace of change she has witnessed while travelling across Uzbekistan’s regions.
“The biggest surprise was the warmth and also the energy, the determination that I’ve seen here in Uzbekistan – and not only in Tashkent, but in the regions as well,” she said, adding that her wardrobe now reflects how often she is on the road.
While every country she has served in has its own history and identity, she said Uzbekistan stands out for the pace of its reforms and their focus on people.
“What struck me the most is really the speed of the reforms and also how the reforms are really having the people at the center,” she said.
Why teachers matter
With two master’s degrees – one in law and one in languages – Machl said the quality of teachers is critical to the success of an education system.
“As a teacher, you need to know the subject you are teaching, you need to know the students in front of you, and you should yourself never stop learning,” she said, adding that a good teacher should never be afraid to tell students, “I don’t know.”
She credited Uzbekistan with bringing access to education close to universal levels, but said the focus now should be on quality, particularly on helping teachers identify and nurture each child’s individual talents.
The UN, she said, supports this work through policy advice based on international experience and through agencies such as UNICEF and UNESCO. She described Uzbekistan’s young population as a “demographic window of opportunity.”
Languages, identity and diplomacy
Machl, who speaks several foreign languages, said her interest in languages began in early childhood in a small Austrian village where only German was spoken at home.
She has been studying Uzbek since arriving in the country and often opens events with the greeting “Assalomu alaykum, aziz va muhtaram do‘stlar.” She also highlighted two Uzbek words that are especially meaningful to her – ishonch (trust) and umid (hope).
