Ramanie Kunanayagam, a Sri Lankan-born Australian citizen, was appointed to the Inspection Panel on December 16, 2018.  Ms. Kunanayagam became Panel Chairperson from January 1, 2022 to December 15, 2023. She brings to the Panel three decades of experience across diverse geopolitical and multicultural environments in the private and public sectors.

Ms. Kunanayagam spent more than 10 years doing fieldwork in a remote part of East Kalimantan, Indonesia. She has held leadership positions in sustainability in both the private sector (working for two FTSE 10 companies) and the nonprofit sector. Most recently before joining the Panel she was the Global Head for Social Performance and Human Rights for BG Group. She has been a member of the boards of two international non-profit development organizations—RESOLVE and the Institute of Human Rights and Business.

Ms. Kunanayagam has strong operational experience working across the entire project cycle. Her experience with multinational and international organizations and valuable experience living and working in more than 30 countries make evident her people skills and ability to broker trust relationships. Her appointment as a secondee to the World Bank very early in her career also gives her insight into and knowledge of the organization’s operations that complement the expertise she has developed working alongside civil society, multilaterals, bilaterals and communities affected by World Bank projects.

She earned a master’s degree in anthropology from Monash University, Australia.

Her initial Panel term ran through December 15, 2023.  The World Bank Board has approved her continuation as a Panel Member until April 7, 2024.