Expert Profile

Ms Kiki Lawal is an Executive-in-Residence within the Global Fellowship Initiative of the GCSP. Kike (Kiki) Rebecca Lawal has over two decades of national and international experience in banking and the private sector, partnerships, resource mobilization, inter-agency coordination and intergovernmental processes. Her skills and experience also include building relationship, strong client interaction, ESG governance, negotiation skills and as well as disaster risk reduction. Prior to joining the Global Fellowship Initiative, Kiki worked for the United Nations system   in Geneva, New York and Bangkok. Her UN career has taken her to Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Australia, Europe, North and South America. She initiated Private Sector for Disaster risk reduction now known as ARISE and was proud to coordinate the private sector input to Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. She drew on her earlier experience working in UK banking to persuade Nigerian banks to join the United Nations Environment Finance Initiative to align their economies with sustainable development. A high point of her UN career was serving as a chair of focal point for the UN Racial Justice   Network in New York and making valuable recommendations to Secretary General António Guterres which were incorporated in the UN Strategic Action Plan on Addressing Racism and Promoting Dignity for all in the United Nations Secretariat.  Kiki is passionate about addressing gaps between the South and West by leveraging her diverse experience and background to close and bridge these gaps in understanding and implementation and aims to foster job creation in multilateral organizations and local and national governments, cities and communities, including faith-based community. Kiki holds an MBA from University of Liverpool, with thesis focusing on importance of public-private partnerships and a BA in Business Economics from Middlesex Business School, London. Kiki ‘s native language is Yoruba, and she is fluent in English and French, and with basic knowledge of Italian. She is currently an Executive-in-Residence Fellow within the GCSP Global Fellowship Initiative where is hoping to capitalize on her decades of experiences, exchange ideas, learn, and willingness to co-create solutions to address critical geopolitical matters. Born to Nigerian parents in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and the age of five, Kiki was sent to a Scottish num’s Catholic prep school in Nigeria and subsequently sent to the UK where she spent most of her adolescence before moving to Paris and spending most of her professional life Geneva. She is both Swiss and Nigeria.