METRO MANILA, 19 Oct 2022 – The United Nations (UN) Assistant Secretary-General and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Director Ms. Kanni Wignaraja will visit the Philippines on official mission from 22 – 28 October 2022.  

During her week-long mission, Ms. Wignaraja will meet with senior government officials, and private sector, civil society, and youth representatives, to discuss UNDP's work and contribution to the country's development priorities and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.   

She will also lead the launch of “Pintig: Women, Data, and the Pandemic” – a documentary which highlights the invaluable work and commitment of women leaders in the Philippines who bravely stood up to the crisis brought about by the pandemic – at home and within communities.  

Ms. Wignaraja’s programme also includes field visits to Mindanao to hand over equipment to support sustainable livelihoods for local communities. She will also have discussions on resilience with leading thinkers, industry practitioners, and civil society organizations to explore what the Philippines should do to use the economic, social, and environmental policy and financing instruments to support green recovery, while also building sustainable and resilient economies and societies.   

Since 1965, UNDP has worked with the Government of the Philippines, civil society, and the private sector to strengthen inclusive, green, and resilient growth, and to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and to ensure no one is left behind.   

Today, it continues to strengthen the country’s capacities at the national and local levels to promote democratic governance, sustainable management of natural resources, climate change adaptation and disaster risk management, and resilience and peacebuilding. In all its programmes, UNDP integrates human rights and gender equality, believing that everyone should have equal access to the benefits of development. 

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NOTE TO EDITORS 

About Ms. Kanni Wignaraja  

UN Assistant Secretary-General, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific.  

Ms. Kanni Wignaraja began her role as UNDP’s Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific on 18 November 2019. Previously, Ms. Wignaraja served as the Acting Assistant Administrator and Director of UNDP’s Bureau of Management Services and as Special Adviser to the UNDP Administrator, roles that she performed throughout 2019 after working as the Director of the UN Development Operations Coordination Office from 2014 to 2018. 

Ms. Wignaraja has more than 25 years of experience with the United Nations work on sustainable development and possesses a deep knowledge of the Asia-Pacific region as well as the global, regional and country-level workings of UNDP, across policy, programme, management and operations. 

Prior to joining the UN, Ms. Wignaraja worked with the Ford Foundation in New York. She has contributed to numerous papers, articles and conferences in areas of public policy, institutional reform, capacity development, human rights and leadership. Ms. Wignaraja holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration (Development Economics) from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Bryn Mawr College. 

For more information, please contact: Charlene Balaan, UNDP Communications Analyst, charlene.balaan@undp.org