Our Team in Nepal

Ms. Ayshanie Medagangoda-Labé is the UNDP Resident Representative for Nepal since April 2019. Prior to this appointment, Ayshanie worked as the Deputy Resident Representative for UNDP in Nepal since August 2018. She also served as UNDP’s Deputy Resident Representative in the Kingdom of Morocco as well as in the Republic of Algeria. Ayshanie holds a MSc in Agro-Economics, Sociology and Rural Development from the Faculty of Agriculture, Gembloux/Liège, Belgium. She speaks English and French.

Carolin Spannuth Verma is the UNHCR Representative to Nepal. Her thematic focus during her service with UNHCR, includes but is not limited to International Protection, Resettlement, Integration, Voluntary Repatriation, Refugee Status Determination, International Humanitarian Law, Protection of Civilians, LGBTIQ integration, Child protection and Gender issues, Capacity Development, Refugee Law Training and Staff Welfare. Carolin attained her higher and post-graduate Law Degree from the University of Freiburg and Hamburg, Germany and in 1995 obtained her license to practice as a Judge in Germany.

With more than 20 years of experience in development and operations across several different regions and organizations, Charles Callanan now serves as the Director of UNOPS South Asia Hub, responsible for UNOPS operations in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Previously he was running UNOPS operations in Nepal after the devastating earthquakes in 2015, where he led his office to carry out detailed damage surveys of one million houses, as well as large-scale reconstruction efforts and capacity support. Prior to this, he served as Director of UNOPS New York office where he managed operations in 110 countries and represented UNOPS in the Executive Board. Charles holds an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is an MIT Sloan Fellow.

For over 23 years, Elke Wisch has been working to improve the lives of children and women and their communities in a range of development, transition and emergency contexts. In 2008, Wisch took on the role of Senior Peacebuilding and Recovery Coordinator for Northern Uganda within the UN Country Team, and then held the position of UNICEF Deputy Regional Director for the Eastern and Southern Africa region from 2009-2014. She was appointed as the UNICEF Representative in Madagascar in 2014 (a position she held for four years). In August 2018, Wisch joined the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, serving as the Deputy Regional Director ad interim, until taking up the Representative post in Nepal. Ms. Wisch holds a Master of Arts in Social and Political Sciences from Munich University and a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Lando has been serving in development and humanitarian field for over 25 years and has been advocating for migrants’ rights, their protection, and highlighting the contribution of migration to development during her service with IOM since 2000. Prior to her posting in Nepal, she worked as the IOM Chief of Mission in Africa, Asia and in Europe. Lorena holds an International Post-graduate Diplomas in Humanitarian Assistance and Civilian Personnel in Peacekeeping Operations from Fordham University, New York and Sant’Anna di Pisa, Italy respectively. Lorena is an Italian national and is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Italian.

Lubna Baqi is the Country Representative of the United Nations Population Fund for Nepal since 3 October 2017. She has over 25 years of experience working in the development field, many of them at UNFPA. Prior to this, Baqi served as the UNFPA Deputy Regional Director for the Asia-Pacific, providing oversight and support to the 23 country offices in the region and managing the work of the programme, technical and communications teams in the regional office, including regional interventions and strategic partnerships. Baqi is a British national and holds a Master of Science degree in Economics from the Development Planning Unit, University College London.

Masauso Nzima is the UNAIDS Country Director in Nepal.

Masauso is responsible for providing leadership and coordinating support to the national HIV response, through policy and strategic guidance, technical collaboration and political outreach to key partners.

Masauso has been with UNAIDS for fifteen years, and served as Strategic Information Adviser prior to taking up the current assignment. Masauso has been instrumental in engaging governments and other stakeholders in various countries, particularly helping them prioritise locally led analyses of strategic information for more effective programming.
Masauso, a Zambian national and has a Master’s degree in Demography from the Australian National University and has over 20 years combined experience in the development and academic fields.

Michael Croft joined UNESCO in 1998. He has worked for the Organization for over two decades in a variety of challenging assignments in Headquarters, Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Appointed as the Organization’s Representative to Nepal in August 2021, he is a strong proponent of youth leadership in development.

Ms. Pragya Pradhan joined UN-Habitat in Nepal as the Habitat Program Manager in July 2021. Ms. Pradhan brings to the position more than 10 years of experience in urban and regional planning, safer building construction, disaster recovery and urban resilience sectors.

Ms. Pradhan has worked in the government, the UN system and with various development partners in Nepal. Before joining UN-Habitat, Ms. Pradhan was working in UNDP Nepal leading projects on the implementation of the national building code and the development of risk sensitive land use plans and supporting housing reconstruction and recovery after the massive 2015 Gorkha earthquake. Prior to that, she was working in the Ministry of Urban Development to develop National Urban Development Strategy and various guidelines and training packages for local governments.

Ms. Pradhan holds a Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning and a Graduate certificate in Disaster Management from University of Hawaii.

Dr Rajesh Sambhajirao Pandav has been appointed as the WHO Representative to the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal from September 2020.
His association with WHO started in 2004 with Mental Health and Substance Abuse Unit in the WHO Regional Office for South East Asia Region. Since then he has served WHO in various capacities that include: Medical Officer (Public Health,) WHO Country Office for Maldives, (2009-2011); and Health Policy Advisor, WHO Country Office for Timor-Leste, (2011-March 2015).
He was awarded the WHO Director General’s Excellence Award in 2016.

Dr. Balakrishnan has three decades of experience in local development finance, sustainable development and governance reform. He has worked closely with national and sub-national governments, civil society networks and multilateral organizations across Asia and Africa. Dr. Balakrishnan was closely involved in the evolution of Citizen Report Cards, a global best practice that enables and empowers communities to influence public service delivery. With a doctoral degree in Management, he has published extensively on public administration reform, organizational development and evaluation.