What is your educational background?

MSc degree in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago, USA, as well as MSc in Geology from Peking University, China.

BSc degree in Geochemistry from Peking University, China.

What made you apply to the JPO programme/what is your motivation to work with your UN agency?

I grew up in a country that’s been on a fast track moving out of poverty and towards modernization in the past four decades or so. I appreciate how important sustainable development achievements are for a developing country. My previous work at the Ministry of Commerce of China was not only about policy making and implementation, but also about extensive engagement with the private sector, both domestic and international, to promote private investment into national priority sectors. When I saw the UNDP JPO programme position on SDG Finance and South-South cooperation, it appeared to me as an ideal platform where I could make greater contribution to the sustainable development agenda.  

What are the main activities/tasks you are working on? What is a day at the office/in the field like?

My work is mainly on two fronts: SDG Financing and South-South Cooperation. On SDG financing, I support the team in advancing the development of Integrated National Financing Frameworks (INFF) in more than 30 sub-Saharan countries. The main goal of INFFs is to develop integrated national financing strategies which will set out prioritized public and private financing reforms, necessary to mobilize resources and investments for the financing needs of national development plans. The work involves quantitative and qualitative research and technical quality assurance for different workstreams of the INFF implementations in various countries. On South-South Cooperation, my work focuses on regional mapping, reporting and promotion of South-South and Triangular good practices, and matchmaking of innovative development solutions across the region to foster South-South partnerships.

In your day-to-day work, what SDG(s) are you helping to implement?

My work is mainly contributing to SDG 17 “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development”, more specifically:  Target 17.1 Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection; Target 17.3 Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources; Target 17.5 Adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries; Target 17.6 Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge-sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism; and Target 17.15 Respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development.

What is the most challenging project that you have worked on/are working on?

The very first few weeks when I started my journey at UNDP were very challenging. I needed to quickly master not only the Financing for Development agendas at macro level, but also the technical methodologies for assessing development finance at national level, covering both public and private finance of domestic and international sources. This fast-learning process required a lot of reading and digestion, and immediate application of what I had mastered into conducting development finance research and providing quality assurance support for 11 country proposals for the UN Joint SDG Fund to implement Integrated National Financing Frameworks. Luckily, I was happy to learn that the proposals I supported got rewarded with funding.