We welcome Magdalena Kouneva to head our International Secretariat in Vienna.

Magdalena specialises in development finance and international architecture for sustainable development. She has significant experience designing and implementing a wide range of financing products and innovative financial instruments and supporting and strengthening capacities and systems for financing the Sustainable Development Goals.
Between 2009-2018 she was the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s advisor for development finance in the finance and planning ministries in Rwanda, Malawi, and Papua New Guinea where she designed and managed UNDP’s support and strengthened capacities and systems for financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
From 2019-2020, she supported the European Commission in introducing a new generation of EU guarantees for private sector operations in Africa and EU-neighbouring countries under the European Fund for Sustainable Development, implemented in partnership with European and international multilateral banks and development finance institutions.