Xiaozhe Zhang, a national of China, joined IEO as Senior Professional in October 2024. Prior to joining NDB, Xiaozhe served as an international civil servant in the United Nations system. Her recent role was as the Regional Manager for Asia in the South-South & Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) unit in the External Relations and Governance Department at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) where her primary responsibilities focused on mainstreaming different SSTC approaches in IFAD’s operations in Asia and the Pacific to leverage development results and impact. Before that, she worked in the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) and supported various independent evaluations, including the Corporate-Level Evaluation on IFAD’s Peformance-based Allocation System, the Country Programme Evaluation for China, and project performance evaluations. She also worked in the front office of the Associate Vice-President of the Programme Management Department and in the Operational Policy and Results Division of IFAD, managing agricultural research for development initiatives financed by the European Commission and supporting the development of new corporate strategies and operational delivery.
Prior to IFAD, she worked in the Technical Cooperation Department in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), facilitating the implementation of agricultural projects financed by the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Trust Fund.
As a development practitioner, she has field experience in Africa (e.g. Sudan, Lesotho), Asia (e.g., Cambodia, Viet Nam, Sri Lanka), and the Caucasus region, and has extensive knowledge of project management and operational guidelines and procedures of international financial institutions and UN specialized agencies.
Email: zhang.xiaozhe@ndb.int