
UNDP India
Our Team
Shoko Noda
Resident Representative
Ms. Shoko Noda (Japan) is UNDP Resident Representative in India. Previously, she was the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Maldives. Ms Noda was pivotal in taking forward the development agenda of the Maldives in a politically fluid and charged context. Effectively engaging key national political interlocutors, she has coordinated analysis, engagement and diplomatic action, in addition to strong resource mobilisation at a crucial transitional post-elections phase. She is a strong advocate for gender equality and climate action.
Before that, Ms Noda was UNDP’s Country Director in Nepal from 2011 to 2014. She was UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Mongolia from 2006 to 2011 and Recovery Coordination Advisor to the UN Resident Coordinator in Pakistan from late 2005 to 2006. From May to October 2005 Shoko served with the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo as Chef de Cabinet to the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General. She worked in the HQ as Programme Specialist to the Administrator from 2002 to 2005. She was Assistant Resident Representative in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (2001-2002) and joined UNDP as a JPO where she served in Kosovo (2000-2001) and Tajikistan (1998-2000). Ms Noda’s working career began in 1995 when she was Researcher in the Behavioural Sciences Department with Mitsubishi Research Institute Inc. in Tokyo.
Ms Noda holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Political Science from Keio University, Japan.
Isabelle Tschan Harada
Deputy Resident Representative
Isabelle Tschan Harada (Switzerland) has worked for 20 years in international development at the country, regional and headquarters levels in different regions in conflict, post-conflict, low and middle-income country contexts. Prior to taking up her assignment in India, she served as Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP Burkina Faso and as Governance and Peacebuilding Team Leader at UNDP Regional Hub for Europe and Central Asia in Istanbul (Turkey).
Isabelle also worked as Policy and Programme specialist with UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery in New York and at the Regional Center for West and Central Africa in Dakar (Senegal). She has programmatic and policy experience in a number of thematic areas, including gender equality, socio-economic development, resilience and livelihoods, energy and environment, governance, peacebuilding and rule of law. Before joining UNDP in 2009, Isabelle served as Assistant to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, as Human Rights Officer for the UN Peacekeeping Operation in Burundi (ONUB), and as Regional Coordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa with the Swiss Federal Office for Migration.
Isabelle Tschan holds Master's degrees in Human Rights and Democratization (E.MA, Venice, Italy and Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund, Sweden) and in International Relations (Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland) and speaks German, English, French and Spanish. She likes arts, travelling, discovering and learning about various cultures, swimming and hiking.