Lakshmi Puri

Lakshmi Puri (born 1952) is a former Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations and the former Deputy Executive Director of UN Women.[1] Prior to her 15 year stint at the United Nations, she served as an Indian diplomat for 28 years, and was the India’s Ambassador to Hungary and accredited to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Lakshmi Puri
Lakshmi Puri in 2014.
Born1952
NationalityIndian
EducationUniversity of Delhi (B.A. in Arts) University of Punjab (M.A. in Arts)
OccupationFormer Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women; Former Ambassador of India
Years active1974 - Present
Spouse(s)Hardeep Singh Puri

Education & Personal Life

Puri completed her Bachelor's degree in History from Delhi University and Master's degree in History from Punjab University.

She is married to Hardeep Singh Puri, who is an Indian politician and a former diplomat currently serving as the Civil Aviation Minister of India and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in India. They have two daughters.

Career

Civil Service

Ambassador Puri joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1974 and served in Japan, Sri Lanka, Switzerland (Geneva), and as Ambassador to Hungary and accredited to Bosnia and Herzegovina[2]. At the Ministry of External Affairs headquarters in Delhi, she served as the Under-Secretary on the Japan and Korea desk and later as Under-Secretary on the Pakistan desk. She also served as the Joint-Secretary Economic Division and Multilateral Economic Relations (ED & MER) for six years. She was active in negotiating India’s many bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral economic diplomacy initiatives such as the Look East Policy, Indo-ASEAN Dialogue Partnership, Indian-Ocean Rim Association, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation as well as Group of 15.

United Nations

UNCTAD

She continued with her trade and economic policy work when she joined the United Nations in 2002 as the Director of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) flagship Division on Trade in goods, services and commodities[3]. She became Acting Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD (2007 to 2009)[4]. From 2009 to 2011, she was Director of the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States in New York.

UN Women

Puri was appointed Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of the pioneering global entity for promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women - UN Women in 2011[5].

Awards

Lakshmi is the recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights[6], Novus Award for Championing the Sustainable Development Goals (Novus Summit), and the Millennium Campus Award 2015[7] .

Publications

Lakshmi is a published author of several reports and research papers.

  • Driving the Gender-Responsive Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. UN Women, May 2016
  • Aid for Trade: Global and Regional perspectives. UNU-CRIS (editor and author), April 2009
  • Addressing the Global Energy Crisis. UNCTAD publication (editor), December 2008
  • Interface between Trade & Climate Change. UNCTAD publication (editor), Nov 2007
  • Multilateralism and South-South Cooperation. UNCTAD publication (co-author), Sept 2004
  • Trade and Development Review 2003. UNCTAD publication (author introduction), April 2004
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References
  1. "Secretary-General Appoints Lakshmi Puri of India Assistant Secretary-General for Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships, UN Women". United Nations. 11 March 2011. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
  2. "Indian Embassy, Hungary on Instagram: "Ms. Lakshmi Puri, presently Assistant Secretary-General of UN Women was India's Ambassador to Hungary from March 1999 to July 2002. ⠀ ⠀…"". Instagram. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  3. "Ms Lakshmi Puri appointed UN-OHRLLS director". UN-OHRLLS. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  4. "unctad.org | Petko Draganov of Bulgaria appointed as UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General". unctad.org. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  5. "Secretary-General Appoints Lakshmi Puri of India Assistant Secretary-General for Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships, UN Women | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  6. "UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri receives the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award". UN Women. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  7. "Lakshmi Puri Global Generation Award speech". UN Women. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
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