PROFILE

Miwa Kato is United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s Director for Operations, overseeing field-based technical assistance across the globe in 80+ countries. UNODC is a department of the UN Secretariat assisting Member States fighting transnational organized crime, corruption and terrorism, providing assistance to counter crimes such as illicit drug trafficking, human trafficking, violence against women and cybercrime, and enhancing capacity of criminal justice and crime prevention.

Miwa previously served as UN Women’s Regional Director for the Asia Pacific, overseeing women’s empowerment support in 42 countries. This was preceded by her assignment as UN Women’s Country Director for Egypt, following 12 years of work with UNODC in various capacities, from assisting Afghanistan in post-conflict peacebuilding to inter-governmental norm-setting. She has BA in Comparative Politics (1996) and MA in International Relations (1998) from Sophia University in Tokyo, and PhD in Political Science (2009) from University of Vienna. Spending almost a quarter of a Century serving in the global public sector in New York, The Hague, Kabul, Cairo and Bangkok, she is now working based in Vienna where she lives with her husband and their 15-year-old son. Miwa also teaches courses on Diversity & Inclusion, Leadership & Social Change as Professor by Special Appointment at Sophia University since 2021.