Lenyara Fundukova

Lenyara Fundukova is Senior Knowledge Management Specialist at the Strategy and Knowledge Department (SKD) at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). SKD provides IFAD’s analytical leadership capacity, on the one hand by enabling the Fund to effectively participate in, and contribute to, the international policy dialogue on agricultural and rural development (in particular, on smallholder agricultural development), and on the other helping to ensure that IFAD’s policies, programmes and projects are informed by state-of-the-art thinking on these issues.

Lenyara has dedicated her life to serving people, and has demonstrated her firm commitment throughout the two decades of her national and international service at UNDP, UNOPS and IFAD.  She has managed UN regional and country operations that tackled poverty, inequality, unemployment, migration and climate change, while supporting countries’ resilience and recovery from shocks and conflicts. She has worked in nearly 20 countries in 4 geographic regions: Asia, North Africa, Arab States and Eastern Europe. 

Since 2019, she has been serving as Chair of IFAD’s Staff Association representing IFAD staff around the globe. In that capacity, she repositioned the Staff Association as a potent and constructive force within the global IFAD, while ensuring that every staff’s voice counts and every concern matters.

Her academic background includes a Master’s degree in Economics followed by a Doctorate in Management from the University of Liverpool, UK. Her studies focused on management of organizational reforms and quality of leadership - the areas of greatest attention of the UN nowadays.