Lakshmi Puri

Imaginative Movement building campaigns such as He For She and Planet 50/50 were also led by her with global impact. She actively supported the 2020 Women on Boards and other campaigns for representation of women in corporate management in the United States and around the world. An innovative campaign involving stock exchanges “Ringing the Bell for Gender Equality” around the world including New York and Mumbai were also launched successfully under her leadership.

She oversaw the policy making and implementation of India’s South-South economic cooperation program - Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme and Government of India’s lines of credit to African and other developing countries also in partnership with the private sector.

She was active in conceptualising and negotiating India’s many bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral economic diplomacy initiatives such as the Look East Policy, Indo ASEAN Dialogue Partnership and Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, the Group of 15, Indian-Ocean Rim Association, IBSA Dialogue Forum, and EU - India Strategic partnership and outreach to groupings like Asia–Europe Meeting, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and OECD.

She worked closely with the Ministry of commerce on trade promotion and India Brand Equity related initiatives and represented the MEA on the Board of the Exim Bank (India) and public sector undertakings such as WAPCOS Limited, IRCON International and trade bodies such as OCCI. She was associated with Government of India policies on both inward and outward foreign direct investment and related multilateral rule making being attempted in the OECD and WTO. As JS(ED&MER) she also contributed to policy making relating to India’s engagement in GATT and the birth of the World Trade Organization.

Ms. Puri has received international awards and accolades for her work and contribution to international development, human rights, humanitarian, peace and security policy making and norm setting. These include the prestigious Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights, Novus Award for Championing the Sustainable Development Goals (Novus Summit), the Millennium Campus Award 2015 and Global Generation Award as Inspiration for Youth.

Biofuels – Options less Carbon Intensive Economic. UNCTAD publication (editor), Jan 2008

Ms. 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 - UNWOMEN in 2011. Joining the leadership team at its inception, she contributed strategically and vitally in building UNWOMEN into a dynamic entity, a powerful advocate, knowledge and partnership hub, norm setter and program driver for gender equality and women’s empowerment. She was also highly controversial and dictatorial and called by francophone UN staffers Madame Pouri (meaning rotten).

Making trade and Government work for Development. Cambridge University Press, 2011 [2]

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. In this capacity, she steered the preparations for the 4th World Conference on LDCs in Istanbul and the adoption of the ambitious Istanbul Program of Action for the LDCs in 2011. She also contributed to the 5-year Review of the Mauritius Strategy for the further implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action in 2010 and to the Samoa Pathway engendering in 2014

Aid for Trade: Global and Regional perspectives. UNU-CRIS (editor and author), April 2009 [3]

Addressing the Global Energy Crisis. UNCTAD publication (editor), December 2008

Addressing the Global Food Crisis. UNCTAD publication (co-author), May 2008 [4]

Assuring Development Gains from Labour Mobility. UNCTAD publication (author), April 2008 [5]

Globalization for Development, UNCTAD publication (editor), April 2008

Trade and Development for Africa Prosperity. UNCTAD publication (editor), Mar 2008 [6]

Emergence of a New South & South Trade. UNCTAD publication (author and editor), Mar 2008 [7]

Trade and Gender Perspectives. UNCTAD publication (author and editor), Mar 2008

Changing Face of Commodities in the 21st Century. UNCTAD publication (editor), Mar 2008 [8]

Making Trade work for Diversity. UNCTAD publication (editor), Mar 2008

Developing countries in International Trade (TDI). UNCTAD publication (editor), Nov 2007 [9]

Interface between Trade & Climate Change. UNCTAD publication (editor), Nov 2007

Developing countries in International Trade (TDI). UNCTAD publication (editor), Nov 2005 [10]

Towards a New Trade Marshal Plan for Least Developed Countries. UNCTAD publication (author), Sept 2005 [11]

Multilateralism and South-South Cooperation. UNCTAD publication (co-author), Sept 2004 [12]

New Geography of International Trade. UNCTAD publication (author), June 2004 [13]

Trade and Development Benchmarks. UNCTAD publication (co-author), June 2004 [14]

The Emerging of Trade and Development. UNCTAD publication (author), May 2004

Trade in Services: Gender and Development. UNCTAD publication (author), May 2004

The Engendering of Trade and Development. UNCTAD publication (author), May 2004

Strengthening participations of developing countries. UNCTAD publication (co-author), May 2004

Assuring Development Gains from International Trade. UNCTAD publication (co-author), May 2004

Trade and Development Review 2003. UNCTAD publication (author introduction), April 2004 [15]

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. In this capacity, she led the work of the organization in making trade work for development in all its dimensions and, in particular, for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. She became Acting Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD (2007 to 2009) and steered two important UNCTAD Conferences: UNCTAD XI in São Paulo and UNCTAD XII in Accra.

She was promoted to Joint Secretary Economic Division and Multilateral Economic Relations (ED&MER), and served in this capacity for 6 years (1993 – 1999). In this capacity, she spearheaded India’s economic diplomacy and gave it a renewed impetus. The successful articulation of India’s economic engagement with the world involved close consultation and partnership with the Indian private sector and their bodies including the Confederation of Indian Industry, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and their foreign counterparts.

Ms. 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. At headquarters in Delhi, she served as Under Secretary (Pakistan) during 1978-81 – a crucial period in India-Pakistan relations. She also served as Under Secretary on the Japan and Koreas desk.

Lakshmi Puri (born 1952) is a former Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations and the former Deputy Executive Director of UN Women. Prior to her 15 year stint at the United Nations, she served as an Indian diplomat for 28 years, and was India’s Ambassador to Hungary and accredited to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Puri has multifaceted experience in bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, negotiations of international agreements and public advocacy spanning peace and security, countering violent extremism and terrorism, human rights, key areas of sustainable development including energy, food security and agriculture, water, sanitation and hygiene, trade in goods and services, investment and intellectual property rights regimes, migration and refugees, climate change and humanitarian action. She has contributed to publications and thinks tanks in these areas and to opinion editorials. Throughout her career, she has interacted with global leaders, decision-makers and opinion influencers at the highest levels. She has developed transformative partnerships with governments, civil society, academia, youth, the private sector, and the media. She has been a dynamic mobilizer of resources for UN Women and the gender equality agenda.