Ms. Chamindry Saparamadu is the Director General of the Sustainable Development Council of Sri Lanka (SDCSL) since November 2020. As the Chief Executive Officer of SDCSL, she provides leadership on SDG-based policies, budgeting and financing, monitoring and evaluation, reporting and capacity building. She has represented Sri Lanka in many regional and international conferences on Sustainable Development including presenting Sri Lanka’s Second Voluntary National Review on SDGs at the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York in 2022. During 2023-2024, she spearheaded the formulation of a National Strategy to Promote Inclusive and Sustainable Businesses to achieve the SDGs in Sri Lanka.

Ms. Saparamadu is an Attorney-at-Law and an experienced professional in the development sector counting over twenty years of work experience in policy and legal reforms, management and development cooperation in the areas of governance and sustainable development with a number of national and international organizations. Immediately prior to her appointment to SDCSL, she served as a Technical Advisor to UNDP Sri Lanka on Right to Information (2016-2020) and the Head of the UN Resident Coordinators Office in Sri Lanka (2014-2016).

Ms. Saparamadu has also been involved in research and consultancy assignments with a multitude of agencies such as the UNDP, Helvetas Swiss Inter-cooperation, Save the Children Sri Lanka, DAI Europe, Centre for Poverty Analysis, the International Centre for Ethnic Studies etc on strategy development, programme design, project formulation, external evaluations, donor landscape assessments, political economy studies and legal assessments in the areas of human rights, access to justice, anti-corruption, democracy building and state legitimacy.

In addition, she has served on several government and parliamentary advisory committees including the Working Group on SDGs of the Ministry of Foreign Relations (2020), the Panel of Advisors to the Constitutional Assembly of the Parliament of Sri Lanka (2016-2018), the Governing Council of the Youth Corps in Sri Lanka (2005-2006) and as a Legal Consultant to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms (2003-2004).

During 2020, she also served on the panel of lecturers in the MSc Programme on Sustainable Management offered by the University of Bedfordshire, UK through the Oxford College of Business in Sri Lanka.

Ms. Saparamadu has a multidisciplinary educational background. She is currently reading for a PhD in Development Studies at the University of Colombo. She holds a Masters in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies of Geneva, a LLM in International Trade Law from the University of Wales, a LLB from the University of Colombo and a BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Delhi. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Federalism, Decentralization and Conflict Resolution from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

Ms. Saparamadu is an alumna of the International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) of the United States Department of State.