Kanni Wignaraja

Kanni Wignaraja is the UN Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). With over 30 years of experience in the United Nations, she has held senior leadership roles in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and at the United Nations in Geneva and New York.

Wignaraja brings in-depth knowledge of the Asia-Pacific region. She frequently speaks and writes on the complex challenges that will define the region’s future on human development and human rights, sustainability and disaster response, energy transition and climate change, inequality and social protection, development and climate finance. Wignaraja has particularly underscored the urgency of rethinking development strategies in complex crises, such as those in Afghanistan and Myanmar, as well as policy and governance reforms needed with intensifying interconnected economic and climate crises today. She is an advocate for people-centered perspectives and policies that secure peoples’ futures while protecting the environment.

Before taking up her current role, Wignaraja led UNDP’s Bureau for Management Services, where she oversaw UNDP’s central support services across human resources, finances, administration, budget, procurement, information technology, legal affairs, and security operations for the organization’s $5bn+ annual operations. From 2014 to 2018, Wignaraja led the UN’s Development Operations Coordination Office, overseeing a network of 130+ UN Resident Coordinators (RC) responsible for the coherent and efficient delivery of UN development assistance, globally. Prior to that, she held various leadership roles with the UN/UNDP, including as Senior Policy Advisor to the UNDP Administrator, Director of UNDP’s Capacity Development Group; UN RC/RR to Zambia, and also served in Indonesia and Vietnam.

Kanni Wignaraja’s principled leadership, deep knowledge, and extensive development expertise have established her as a key advocate for multilateral approaches to address today’s complex global and local challenges. She actively engages with research and policy institutes, having co-edited a book entitled The Great Upheaval (2022), published numerous policy papers and articles, and has keynoted international conferences. Through her speaking engagements, articles, op-eds, interviews and panel discussions, she consistently advocates for inclusive and sustainable development and is regularly featured in global and regional media including BBC, CNN, NYT, FT, Bloomberg, NBC, Nikkei, El Pais, Der Spiegel, CGTN, China Daily, and  major national media outlets in Asia and the Pacific.  

Wignaraja holds a Masters degree in Public Administration (Development Economics) from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Bryn Mawr College, USA. Wignaraja is a national of Sri Lanka.  

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Media inquiries and speaking engagement requests can be directed to: rbap.media@undp.org.