Ms. Ayshanie Medagangoda-Labe

Ayshanie Medagangoda-Labé is the UNDP Resident Representative to Lao PDR from September 2026, bringing over 25 years of international development experience across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. She has worked in least developed, middle-income, high-income, crisis-affected and transition contexts, leading UNDP teams, managing complex programmes and operations, and delivering results in challenging environments collaborating with governments, bilateral, multilateral partners and civil society organizations.

Her career spans Sri Lanka, France, Belgium, Bangladesh, Algeria, Morocco, Nepal and Iran, through research, teaching, community development, advisory and UNDP leadership roles. Her earlier work covered agriculture, youth and start-ups, documentation and university research, rural development, development effectiveness, UN coordination and tsunami recovery.

From 2008 to 2018, she served as UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Algeria and Morocco, overseeing programme and operations. Her work covered post-crisis recovery, strategic cooperation, economic diversification, governance and financial sector reform, youth employment, migration, biodiversity, desertification, climate action, mine action, regionalisation, parliamentary support, justice, prevention of extremism, cultural heritage, tourism, oasis ecosystems, traditional irrigation, circular economy, NDCs and renewable energy.

In Nepal, she served as Deputy Country Director, Country Director a.i. and UNDP Resident Representative from 2018 to 2024, leading support for federalization and inclusion, peace and transitional justice, governance reforms, access to justice, mountain communities, tourism, glacial lake ecosystems, climate mitigation and adaptation, MSMEs, business and human rights, waste management, LDC graduation, COVID-19 and earthquake recovery, digital health, livelihoods, renewable energy, climate finance, NDCs, COP preparations and the Global Fund HIV and TB portfolio.

Since September 2024, as Resident Representative a.i. of UNDP Iran, she has focused on programme delivery, risk management, humanitarian response and business continuity under sanctions and crisis conditions.

She holds an MSc in Agro-Economics, Sociology and Rural Development from the Agriculture University in Gembloux/Liège, Belgium, with a thesis on rural poverty reduction in Viet Nam with the Agriculture University of Hanoi. She completed executive education at IMD Lausanne and INSEAD Paris with UNDP, and speaks Sinhalese, English and French, with basic Arabic and Spanish.