UN chief appoints Saraswathy Menon in peacebuilding panel

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Indian sociologist Saraswathi Menon to a panel that will review peacebuilding activities.

Menon, a former lecturer at Madras University, has extensive experience in women's and development issue. She has been the director of the Policy Division of UN-Women, the UN body for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and the director of the UN Development Program's Evaluation Office. Her other UNDP assignments included postings in Mongolia and Nepal.

She has a doctorate in sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi.

The announcement Thursday said, "Menon brings an extensive experience as a researcher and academician as well as in the United Nations system."

The others on the seven-member panel, formally known as "advisory group on the review of the peacebuilding architecture", include a retired Pakistani major general, Anis Bajwa and Charles Petrie of France, who headed an internal review panel on UN actions in Sri Lanka.

Ban formed the group at the request of the Presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council.