Secretary‑General appoints Xiaojun Grace Wang of China as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan 

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Xiaojun Grace Wang of China as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan, with the host Government’s approval. She took up her post on 1 July.

Ms. Wang brings 28 years of experience in international development, with leadership across sustainable development, multilateral cooperation, development financing and multi-stakeholder partnerships. Her work spans diverse development contexts, including middle-income emerging economies, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States.

Most recently, she served as Trust Fund Director at the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), where she oversaw global and United Nations system South-South cooperation trust funds and led partnership development and resource mobilization in support of Sustainable Development Goal implementation. Prior to this, she served as Director ad interim and Deputy Director of UNOSSC, leading system-wide coordination on South-South cooperation, supporting intergovernmental processes and high-level policy dialogues, and overseeing knowledge, innovation, programme and operational management.

She has also held leadership roles at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) headquarters, including as South-South Cooperation Lead Advisor and Global Poverty Practice Manager. Earlier, she led country-level teams on governance, HIV and AIDS, gender and disaster risk management with UNDP.

Before joining the United Nations, Ms. Wang worked with media, foundations and academia in Asia and Europe.

Ms. Wang holds a PhD in Education and International Development from the University of London, a master’s degree in British studies from Beijing Foreign Studies University and a postgraduate diploma from the Inclusive Health Management Center at the University of Stellenbosch.