Dr Janice Golding

Global Head: Coherence and Assurance – United Nations Environment Programme

Dr Janice Golding is a South African national, and an official of the United Nations. At present, she serves the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) from its headquarters, functioning as Global Head: Coherence and Assurance. Previously, she served the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from its country office in South Africa and from its headquarters in New York; and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) from its Embassy in Tshwane.

In 1997, she was awarded a WWF Scholarship to pursue her Masters at UCT on conservation planning on the Cape Flats where she was born and bred. Thereafter, she lifted off as botanical scientist at the National Botanical Institute (1999-2033), today called the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). She has extensive botanical field work experience in Central African Republic, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia.

She continues to publish, most recently on the legacy of Wangari Maathai, Africa’s first female Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for environment and sustainable development.

Janice achieved a Doctorate from the University of Oxford on a scholarship from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; as well as a professional qualification from ESCP Business School, Paris on Intercultural Management. Her interests are principally environmental multilateralism and geo-politics, human development and great literature.