New United Nations resident coordinator arrives in Sri Lanka

The new Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Subinay Nandy presented his credentials to the Government of Sri Lanka on Tuesday  at the Ministry of External Affairs.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Nandy his designated representative in Sri Lanka. As the most senior UN official in the country Nandy will lead the UN Country Team of 20 resident and non-resident UN agencies.

Nandy has almost 20 years of experience with the United Nations. Most recently he served as UNDP Country Director in the People’s Republic of China, where he led the development of UNDP’s new programme as well as developing a new strategic partnership on global development issues and leading UNDP’s support to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

From 2004 to 2007 Nandy was UNDP Country Director in Vietnam. In addition to developing and expanding UNDP’s support to Vietman he played a leading role in the development of the ‘One UN’ approach. In recognition of his support to Vietnam, Nandy was awarded the President’s Friendship Award.

Nandy also held the position of Chief of the Regional Programme and Policy Division in the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific in New York. He served as Deputy Resident Representative in Turkmenistan and Assistant Resident Representative in Bangladesh where he started his UNDP career as National Programme Officer.

Nandy has a PhD in Economics from Moscow Agricultural Academy. A national of Bangladesh he speaks English, Russian and Bangla.

Nandy is the 18th Representative of the United Nations since the UN first opened an office in 1952.