Draft:Kanni Wignaraja

• Comment: Entire sections are unsourced. See WP:BLP. Statements, starting with the date of birth, need to be sourced or removed. Greenman (talk) 12:45, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

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Kanni Wignaraja (born 27 March 1964) is a development practitioner and policy thought leader who currently serves as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and United Nations Development Programme Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific. She has held high-ranking positions at the UN across countries and regions, has published widely and is a regular contributor to international media on the key development issues of our times.

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Early life and education

Kanni Wignaraja was born in Sri Lanka. She did her schooling at Ladies College, Colombo, and then pursued her undergraduate studies at Bryn Mawr College, USA, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. She obtained a Master’s in Public Administration (Development Economics) from Princeton University.

Wignaraja has over 30 years of experience working in international development and diplomacy. Before joining the United Nations, she worked with national and international development organizations, gaining extensive experience in capacity development, governance reform, and multilateral cooperation.

Kanni is married and has two daughters. She currently resides in Connecticut, USA.

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Work at the United Nations

Wignaraja's career with the United Nations has been extensive and varied, spanning multiple regions and functions. She currently serves as the UN Assistant Secretary-General and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific. In this role, she oversees UNDP's operations across the region, managing programs across 36 countries and territories that focus on economic reforms and sustainability, governance and human rights, crisis and disaster response, energy transition and climate change.

Her expertise extends to senior leadership roles in Africa and UN offices in Geneva and New York. Prior to her current position, she served as the Director of UNDP's Bureau for Management Services, where she oversaw support services for the organization’s $5 billion+ annual operations. This included managing human resources, finances, procurement, and information technology, ensuring the efficiency and accountability of UNDP’s global operations.

From 2014 to 2018, Wignaraja led the UN Development Operations Coordination Office, where she managed a network of over 130 UN Resident Coordinators responsible for delivering UN’s development assistance in over 165 countries. She has also served as Senior Policy Advisor to the UNDP Administrator and held leadership positions in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Zambia.

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Development policy thinking and practice

Kanni Wignaraja is widely recognized for her principled leadership and her contributions to sustainable development policy and practice, including in crisis contexts such as Afghanistan and Myanmar. She has been a prominent voice on issues of inequality, climate change, and the need for inclusive development even amidst crises.

Wignaraja is actively engaged with research and policy institutes, contributing to international development thought leadership through her publications, social media posts and keynote speeches. She co-edited the book The Great Upheaval: Resetting Development Policy and Institutions in the Asia-Pacific (2022), which emphasizes the need to rethink development strategies in response to current global crises.

Her published works span various topics related to development, including Capacity Development: A UNDP Primer (2009), and numerous articles advocating for policies like universal basic income. Wignaraja has consistently called for structural reforms to address inequality, particularly in the wake of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also published several pieces on UN leadership for the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation.

Her advocacy extends to major media outlets, where she is regularly featured on global platforms such as CNN, BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, and the Financial Times, discussing the role of women and youth in Afghanistan, human security and economic prospects in the wake of climate change, the role of small businesses and social protection, institutional and governance reforms to promote resilience in regions facing conflict and instability.