John Hendra

JD Hendra Strategic Consulting provides strategic advice in, and brings demonstrated experience to: strategic positioning around sustainable development and the SDGs; leadership for transformative change; complex multi-stakeholder facilitation; gender equality and women’s empowerment; multilateral organization repositioning and multilateral financing. Clients include various UN entities – the UN Development Coordination Office (DCO); the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); the United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Development; and several UN Country Teams - the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Dalberg, Global Affairs Canada and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Most recently, John served as the UN Development Group’s Assistant Secretary-General (ASG) helping the UN Development System (UNDS) become more “fit for purpose” to support implementation of the SDGs. In this role, he worked directly with the UN Deputy Secretary-General on broader UNDS reform. As such, he played a key role in the preparation of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ two seminal 2017 reform reports on “Repositioning the UN Development System to Deliver on the 2030 Agenda”. He also substantively supported the intergovernmental negotiations which resulted in the landmark General Assembly Resolution 72/279 (May, 2018). Over this period, he also provided advisory support to UN Resident Coordinators and UN country teams around the world on support to implementation of the SDGs.

John’s 32 years of UN experience also span leadership roles as UN ASG and Deputy Executive Director for Policy and Programme at UN Women (2011-14), and in “the field”, including 13 years as UN Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Vietnam (2006-2011), in Tanzania (2002-2006), and in Latvia (1993-1997). He also served as UNDP’s Director of Resource Mobilization (1998-2002) and concurrently as Deputy Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Resources and Strategic Partnerships (2000-2002).

John has an MA in Development Studies from the University of Toronto and an Honours BA from Queen’s University. He has co-written a chapter for the forthcoming “Routledge Handbook on the UN and Development” as well as published numerous articles including on a “theory of change” for making the UN fit to support the 2030 Agenda; opening up national budgets for more accountable SDG financing; women’s rights; the role of men and boys in achieving gender equality; climate change and the MDGs. He has been awarded the Three Star Order of Latvia (1997) and Vietnam’s Friendship Order (2011), among other honours.