June Kunugi takes up role as Regional Director, UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Region

Bangkok, Thailand: 16 July 2024: Ms. June Kunugi has taken up her position as Regional Director for UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Region, based in Bangkok, Thailand. She will be leading UNICEF’s agenda for children across the region, covering 28 countries overseen by 14 offices: Cambodia, China, DPR Korea, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Viet Nam, Pacific Islands (based in Fiji), Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

With over 30 years of dedicated service at UNICEF, Ms. Kunugi brings a wealth of experience and expertise to her new position.

Prior to her latest appointment, Ms. Kunugi served as Director of UNICEF’s Public Partnerships Division at the organisation’s New York headquarters, where she led resource mobilisation and advocacy efforts with public sector partners around the world.

Previously, Ms. Kunugi served as UNICEF Representative in Myanmar, where she oversaw a range of child rights-based development programmes and humanitarian responses, managing a diverse team across multiple field offices.

Earlier in her career, she headed UNICEF offices and represented the organization to the State of Palestine; Japan and the Republic of Korea; Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Sultanate of Oman and other countries in the Gulf region.  Ms. Kunugi began her journey with UNICEF in Communications, serving in Viet Nam and Bangladesh.

A national of Japan, Ms. Kunugi holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in East Asian Studies and Romance Languages and Literatures from Wesleyan University and a Master of Science in Journalism from Columbia University.