UNDP in Nepal

Our team

UNDP Resident Representative

Ms. Ayshanie Medagangoda-Labé (Sri Lanka) is UNDP Resident Representative for Nepal.

Prior to this appointment, Ayshanie was UNDP’s Deputy Resident Representative for Programme and Operations in Nepal since August 2018. She also served as UNDP’s Deputy Resident Representative (P/O) in the Kingdom of Morocco (2012-2018), as well as in the Republic of Algeria (2008-2012).

Early in her career, she served in Bangladesh as the Head of Office and Coordination & Aid Effectiveness Advisor to the UN Resident Coordinator (2005-2008). Additionally, she worked as a Portfolio Manager for UNDP Bangladesh, in charge of Agriculture Food Security and Rural Development portfolios (2002-2005).

Before joining the UN system, she worked for both the public sector (Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences in Gembloux, Belgium, EU Delegation in Bangladesh) and NGOs (Overseas Mission Secretariat, Hellen Keller International-Bangladesh) on programme management, research and analytic work related to poverty alleviation, youth entrepreneurship, food & nutrition security, and natural disasters responses (1988-2002).

Ayshanie holds a MSc in Agro-Economics, Sociology and Rural Development from the Faculty of Agriculture, Gembloux/Liège, Belgium. She speaks English and French.

Ayshanie took up her new assignment on 11 April 2019.

Follow her on Twitter: @Ayshaniee
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UNDP Deputy Resident Representative

Mr. Bernardo Cocco (Italy) is the Deputy Resident Representative for UNDP in Nepal.

Mr. Cocco was recruited by UNDP in 2002 as part of the management training programme. Since then he has worked both in field assignments field (Nigeria, Fiji, Kosovo) as well as at the New York Headquarters, in various postings in the areas of Governance, support to Elections, and Crisis Recovery. He has experience in programme design/planning, implementation, monitoring, innovation, knowledge management, corporate affairs, and operations.

Prior to this appointment, Bernardo was a Global Policy Advisor and Team Leader, Knowledge Management and Innovation, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, UNDP, New York (December 2013 -August 2019).
Previously he served as the Deputy Country Director (Programmes), for UNDP Nigeria Country Office (July-December 2013).

He started his UN career as a Civil Affairs Officer with the UN Mission in Kosovo. Since then he held several programmatic and management functions in UN/UNDP, including as Programme/Coordination/Early Recovery Analyst (Fiji), Programme Specialist for the International Labour Organization, (ILO) (Fiji), as a Special Assistant to the UNDP Associate Administrator (New York), and as a Resource Policy Specialist with the Bureau of Management, New York.

Mr. Cocco also worked for the private sector as a business development manager for an internet service provider in the Czech Republic.

Mr. Cocco holds a master’s degree in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Sussex (UK). Mr. Cocco took up his new assignment in Nepal on 13 August 2019.

Follow him on Twitter: @bcoccobklyn
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To know more about and contact the UNDP Nepal team, specific focal points of different practice areas and units, please visit this page.