Olav Kjørven

Olav Kjørven is the Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 

Mr. Kjørven is currently leading UNDP’s substantive contribution to the intergovernmental process around RIO+20 and is a senior adviser to the Secretary-General on the Sustainable Energy For All initiative. Mr. Kjørven is co-chairing the UN system-wide efforts to advance preparation for the post-2015 development framework, including initiating a global conversation on ‘the world we want to live in’ through national, regional and global dialogue organized by the UN Development Group, representing all UN development agencies. He is also leading the UN’s engagement with the G20 Development Working Group.

Before his appointment as Assistant Secretary-General in 2007, Mr. Kjørven was the head of UNDP’s Environment and Energy Group for two years. While there, he spearheaded the group’s work on mainstreaming environmentally sustainable solutions in development plans and programmes, enhancing capacities to both access and sequence environmental financing and adapt to climate change. He also helped forge a closer working relationship between UNDP and the United Nations Environment Programme.

From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Kjørven was State Secretary for International Development with the Government of Norway. From 2000 to 2001, Mr. Kjørven was Director of International Development at the ECON Centre for Economic Analysis, an applied economics research and consulting firm in Oslo. Before that, he spent three years as political adviser to Norway’s Minister of International Development and Human Rights. Between 1992 and 1997, Mr. Kjørven was Environmental Specialist with the World Bank.

Born and raised in Norway, Mr. Kjørven has a Master of Arts in International Affairs from George Washington University.