Ramanie Kunanayagam appointed as new Inspection Panel Member of World Bank

Monday, 5 November 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Ramanie Kunanayagam has been appointed as a member of the Inspection Panel, succeeding Gonzalo Castro de la Mata, whose five-year term expires on 15 December.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim announced Kunanayagam’s appointment on 29 October after it was approved by the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors.

President Kim in a statement said: I am pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Ramanie Kunanayagam as a Member of the Inspection Panel. Ms. Kunanayagam replaces Mr. Gonzalo Castro de la Mata whose term will expire 15 December 2018.

Ms. Kunanayagam is a Sri Lankan born Australian citizen and will bring to the Panel more than 25 years of experience across diverse geopolitical and multicultural environments in the private and public sectors. Ms. Kunanayagam’s leadership experience spans across private, public and non-profit sectors.

Ms. Kunanayagam spent over 10 years doing fieldwork in a remote part of East Kalimantan, Indonesia. She has held leadership positions in sustainability in both the private sector, (working for two FTSE 10 companies) and the non-profit sector. Most recently she was the Global Head for Social Performance and Human Rights for BG Group. She is a member of the Board of two international non-profit development organizations - RESOLVE and Youth Business International. In addition, Ms. Kunanayagam is a Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia and an Executive Session member at Columbia University’s Centre for Sustainable Investment.

With her ability to distill information and cross-cutting sector experience she will bring valuable insights and a contemporary perspective to the Inspection Panel along with good judgment and the ability to balance complex issues and consider the competing demands of diverse stakeholders while remaining independent and objective.

Ms. Kunanayagam has strong operational experience working across the entire project cycle. Her experience with multinational and international organisations and valuable experience living and working in more than 30 countries make evident her people skills and ability to broker trust relationships. Her appointment as a secondee to the World Bank very early in her career also give her insights and knowledge of the organisation’s operations that complement the expertise she has developed in working alongside civil society, multilaterals, bi-laterals and communities impacted by World Bank projects.

She earned a Masters in Anthropology from Monash University, Australia.

Ms. Kunanayagam was selected to this position through an international, competitive recruitment process.

Her appointment is effective 16 December.