Alexandra Wilde re-joined UNDP’s Global Policy Centre for Governance in 2024 with responsibility for the Centre’s work on Governance Data and Analytics. Alexandra has more than 25 years working in senior roles at the intersection of research, policy development, advocacy and technical assistance for a diversity of organizations including government, civil society and the United Nations. She has global expertise on governance, democratic development, human rights, inclusion and sustainable development. Alexandra has dedicated a significant portion of her professional life in guiding UNDP’s efforts in the promotion of official and non-official governance statistics at country and global levels and has coordinated multiple research, policy development, advisory and advocacy initiatives to advance the measurement, implementation and monitoring of SDG 16.
Ms. Usheva is a survey and data specialist with extensive experience in various aspects of drugs and crime statistics (including corruption statistics). She has been instrumental in developing statistical frameworks and methodologies for effectively measuring crime, and she played a key role in the development of the SDG16 Survey Initiative.
Throughout her career, Fatma has provided technical assistance and capacity building to statistical offices and ministries, leading the implementation of surveys in countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. Before joining UNDP, she led the research activities at UNODC Afghanistan and spent four years working on crime and criminal justice statistics at UNODC Headquarters in Vienna.
Ms. Usheva is a Bulgarian national, and she holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Milan, Italy, and a Master's degree in Economics and Business Administration from Aarhus University, Denmark.
Faton is a communications analyst, former intern, at the UNDP Global Policy Centre for Governance in Oslo. He holds dual bachelor's degrees in Law (LLB) and International Relations (BIR) from IE University in Madrid. At IE he represented the university at the UN Youth Forum during MENA Climate Week in Riyadh and completed a mentorship with the UN System Staff College and UNODC on governance and anti-corruption.
He has previously served as Acting Head of ANSA Madrid, leading communications, advocacy, and events for Norwegian students in Spain, and has supported outreach campaigns with organisations such as Doctors Without Borders. His interests lie in strategic communications and multilateral development cooperation as tools for advancing governance and inclusive policy-making.
Julia has worked on the intersection of governance with other policy areas over the past 20 years. At the Centre, she conceived research on SDG 16 interlinkages (reflected in the ‘Connections That Matter’ publication series) and now leads the Research and Innovation Team overseeing the workstreams on information integrity, fair green transition and financial integrity. She started her career with NGOs such as Amnesty International, CARE International and Transparency International and then developed UNDP’s human rights-based approach to poverty reduction. When the SDGs were conceived, she co-designed the UN’s consultation guidelines used in over 80 countries and led the successful engagement of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the negotiation process. She also worked for the German Institute for Human Rights supporting the integration of SDGs in national policy making and did freelance work on ocean governance. Julia is a fully trained lawyer and holds an MSc in Development Practice from Oxford Brookes University.
Luigi is a Financial Integrity Intern at the UNDP Global Policy Centre for Governance in Oslo. He holds an LL.M. in International Economic Law from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he studied as a Global Scholar, and an LL.B. in European Law from Maastricht University.
Previously, Luigi worked as a Trainee in the Enforcement and Sanctions Division of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, where he supported enforcement and sanctioning proceedings against supervised institutions. Before joining the ECB, he contributed to impact litigation on behalf of non-refoulement claimants and victims of human trafficking in Hong Kong and served as a Student Fellow with the Globalisation & Law Network, a research group at Maastricht University. His interests include financial integrity, governance, the rule of law and institutional accountability.
Margaret Chi was previously a Programme Specialist within the Joint Directorate of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support and Crisis Bureau where she supported bureau-level strategic work planning and reporting and advised global project teams on UNDP programming standards and result-based programme management lifecycle, from design to end-of-project evaluation. Previously, as the Coordinator of the Democratic Governance Thematic Trust Fund, she oversaw UNDP’s trust fund programming in youth and development projects in 34 countries which informed UNDP’s first Youth Strategy and integration of youth and development programming into the UNDP Strategic Plan. Prior to joining UNDP, Margaret worked for over 12 years with UNOPS in various capacities in both HQ/NY and Nairobi in the management of global and regional (Africa) development projects on environment, governance, gender, poverty reduction and health, collaborating with a wide range of UN and development partners. Margaret is a UNDP SURGE Advisor and holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University.
Mariana has previously worked for the National Statistics Office of Cabo Verde, where she coordinated Governance, Peace, and Security Statistics at the national, regional, and global levels. In this capacity, she was the Group Praia on Governance Statistics coordinator. She represented her country in the negotiations and design of the Global indicator framework for the Sustainable Development Goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. From 2016 to 2019, Mariana worked with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as a consultant on crime and criminal justice statistics in Eastern Africa. Since 2020, Mariana has been working as Governance Statistics Specialist for the UNDP Global Policy Centre for Governance on several measurement-related activities, including the SDG 16 Survey Initiative. Mariana holds a Post-Graduate Degree in Data Analysis for Social Sciences.
Søren Vester Haldrup’s work focuses on transnational corruption, financial integrity and innovation. At the center, he leads a new experimental initiative deploying innovation and systems thinking to understand and tackle transnational corruption across its global 'value chain' from source countries in West Africa to the countries where the funds are hidden and spent. He also oversees the Centre’s work on financial integrity. Before joining the GPCG, Søren worked in UNDP’s Strategic Innovation Unit where he helped country offices and partners to deploy systems approaches to tackle complex problems. In this role Søren also built UNDP’s monitoring and evaluation (M&E) Sandbox, a thriving community of 200+ organizations collaborating and sharing learning on innovative M&E. Prior to joining UNDP in New York, Søren worked as a Senior Consultant with Oxford Policy Management, supporting governments and aid agencies on public sector reform and political economy analysis. He has also worked for UNDP Tanzania/ Government of Tanzania, International Rescue Committee Ethiopia, and the Danish Institute for International Studies. Søren holds an MSc in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen and an MSc in Theory and History of International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Søren has lived in Denmark, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the UK and the USA. He has also worked for shorter periods in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Trinidad, and Ukraine.
Toril-Iren Pedersen is Director of UNDP Global Policy Centre for Governance.
Pedersen brings extensive experience from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), where she was Assistant Director in the Department of Partnerships and Shared Prosperity and Head of Section for Governance.
Prior to joining Norad, Pedersen worked at the UN, focusing on a range of governance and public management issues including support to local governments, expenditure and revenue management, land governance and gender in public administrations.
Torni Iren Johansen has been the Administrative Assistant at the Global Policy Centre for Governance since January 2008 and has 40 years of experience in administrative work. Before joining the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in 2001, she worked for the Norwegian Defence. Torni has served abroad in a military capacity in both UN and NATO-led missions and also worked 4 years at NATO HQ as an executive assistant. While with DPKO she was posted to Kosovo, Lebanon and Haiti, working mostly with the Board of Inquiry.
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