Kishan Khoday

UNDP Resident Representative

Kishan Khoday is Resident Representative for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Multi-Country Office in Jamaica, from where he represents UNDP in the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Turks and Caicos Islands.

For over two decades, Kishan has been a champion for inclusive and sustainable development, serving with UNDP for the past 25 years in Asia and the Pacific as well as the Middle East and North Africa. This included 15 years with UNDP Country Offices in China, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, advancing UNDP’s mandate to accelerate action on economic diversification and transformation, climate change and ecosystem conservation, women’s empowerment, disaster risk reduction, and human security. 

In recent years, Kishan served in UNDP’s regional offices for the MENA region based in Egypt and Jordan, overseeing the UN’s largest programme of assistance in the region to address the climate emergency and trends of multi-dimensional crisis. Prior to joining the UN, Kishan worked with government and community organizations in his home countries of Canada and India on issues of poverty reduction, ecological resilience and community empowerment.

Kishan has been a thought leader on the development agenda, publishing extensively on the planetary crisis, strategic policy and governance responses, with a focus on postcolonial and decolonial pathways for the Global South. He has served as a visiting scholar and research fellow at the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity at the Earth Institute, the Center for International Sustainable Development Law, and Tsinghua University; and a member of the International Law Association, the Indian Society for International Law, and the European Society of International Law. His work has been recognized by Time Magazine as a Global Principal Voice on the climate and energy transition, and as an Olympic torch runner on behalf of the UN and the cause of climate action.

Kishan is a Canadian of Indian origin, has traveled to over fifty countries, and has lived and worked across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. Kishan is a scientist and lawyer, with expertise in planetary systems, climate change, ecosystem resilience, constitutionalism, postcolonial and decolonial theory, and resilience-based approaches to development. He holds a Juris Doctorate (Vermont Law) specializing in constitutional, international and environmental law; a Master of Science (Antioch New England) in resource management specializing in water and land governance; and a Bachelor of Science (McGill) in agriculture specializing in biodiversity and ecological change.