Tripathi named asst secretary-general
Satya S Tripathi, an Indian development economist and lawyer, has been appointed assistant secretary general of the United Nations and will head the New York office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Tripathi has worked at the UN since 1998 in Europe, Asia and Africa on strategic assignments in sustainable development, human rights, democratic governance and legal affairs, the world body said in an announcement on Monday. Since 2017, he has been a senior adviser to the UNEP on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Tripathi is possibly the thirdhighest ranking Indian in the UN bureaucracy after Atul Khare, an under-secretary general who heads the department of operations, and Nikhil Seth, an assistant secretary general who headed the world body’s Genevabased UN Institute for Training and Research in 2015.
Tripathi, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degree from Berhampur University, was previ- ously the director and executive head of the United Nations Office for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD)+ Coordination in Indonesia, as well as for the United Nations Recovery Coordinator for the US$ 7 billion post-tsunami and post-conflict recovery efforts in Aceh and Nias, according to the UN.
He was also chair of the committees on laws and treaties for the Un-mediated Cyprus unification talks in 2004.