Nishanie Jayamaha

Advisory Council

Nishanie is the Co-coordinator of the Secretariat for the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations.  She has over 20 years of experience working in the United Nations, International Organisations, Government institutions, NGO, and private sectors in a variety of roles with expertise ranging from disaster management and risk reduction, humanitarian and early recovery response and coordination, protection, access negotiations, gender, civic space, learning and climate change.

She started her career with the Centre for Women’s Research (CENWOR) and The British Council, Kandy, Sri Lanka. She then moved on to the humanitarian sector following the Indian Ocean Tsunami and has worked at country, regional and HQ levels on policy and practice. She has worked at UN OCHA, the World Humanitarian Summit and the Grand Bargain secretariats, Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection (PHAP), and in her last role, Nishanie was the climate, learning and civic space lead for the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) – a global humanitarian NGO network.

Nishanie has a Master’s in International Relations from the University of Colombo and a Bachelor’s Degree in English, Sociology, and Psychology from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. She has also undertaken studies in child psychology and diplomacy.