Lena Sundh

Ambassador Lena Sundh has long experience of working on issues relating to peace and stability, conflict resolution and gender equality both at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the United Nations.

She is currently Special Envoy to the Great Lakes at the Ministry and participates in the Burundi peace talks facilitated by Tanzania’s former President Mkapa.

In January 2018 she was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as chair of the International Commission of Inquiry for Mali. She was Ambassador to Angola until September 2016.

Sundh has served as the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUC, 2002-2004. Moreover she was Head of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal 2006-2007 and member of the UN Monitoring Mechanism for the Angola sanctions 2000-2001.

In 2004-2005 Sundh chaired SIDDR, the Stockholm Ini[1]tiative on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration and participated in the work to follow up the findings of SIDDR in the field. She also represented Sweden as delegate to the UN Commission on the Status of Women 1987-1989 and 1992-1995.

Geographic expertise

Angola
Great Lakes
Cambodia
Namibia
Nepal
Thailand

Topical expertise

Ceasefire negotiations
Peacekeeping
Security Council resolution 1325

Languages

Swedish
English
French
Portuguese

How can we prevent genocide? FBA and ISCI gather researchers and experts for this Autumn’s most important conversation

Why does the international community so often hesitate to act, despite both moral and legal obligations? The Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) and the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) brought together researchers and experts for a dialogue on genocide, drawing on historical and contemporary lessons, in light of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza over the past two years.

2025-10-16 10:33

Read our publications

The Gender-Responsive Leader's Handbook

Gender equality is both a goal and a prerequisite for sustainable peace and development. FBA’s Gender-Responsive Leadership (GRL) Initiative is designed to support leaders and managers within organizations such as the EU, UN, ECOWAS, OSCE and the African Union to fulfill their central role in enabling gender equal peace, security and development work.

Documents

More Publications

On international deployment

Teresa Wiklund

Monitor at EUMM in Georgia

Kajsa Norman

Election observer

Catalina Perdomo Rodriguez

Adviser to the UN in Colombia

Karolina Riedel

Statistician in election observation missions

Björn Tedeman

Election observer

THE FBA BLOG

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Posted by Marie Blomdahl
A safe online space to share experiences to support leadership in the UN

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When I joined the Leadership and Cooperation Unit at the Folke Bernadotte Academy in August 2018, after working many years mainly in the private sector, I had a feeling that this job really would offer me an opportunity to use my skills and experiences to make a difference, and at the same time grow as a professional. FBA was at the time already working actively with leadership development support for leaders in key functions within the ... Read entire post »
2021-06-03 10:54
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Posted by Rhodri Williams
Civil Society as a Critical Partner: Rule of Law and Accountability in the Liberian COVID-19 Response, Part II

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Part One of this post highlighted the importance of the rule of law in supporting crisis response in countries struggling with the effects of conflict. One of the most important rule of law principles in such settings is accountability, particularly “downward accountability”, in which state authorities focus on serving citizens dependent on them.

Corruption and poor governance can lead to excessive upward accountability directed toward political superiors, leaving a gap between the state and ordinary citizens. Civil ... Read entire post »

The post Civil Society as a Critical Partner: Rule of Law and Accountability in the Liberian COVID-19 Response, Part II first appeared on FBA-bloggen.
2021-02-15 13:43
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Posted by Kristin Valasek
Time for a joint vision on gender-responsive leadership

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Right before the winter break, 236 women and men from 105 different organizations and 46 countries around the world joined our International Dialogue on Gender-Responsive Leadership, to discuss an absolutely critical and often missing part of the gender equality puzzle: gender-responsive leadership.

After twenty years of struggling to achieve the commitments of the global women, peace and security agenda, we at the FBA have learned that executives and managers are essential to success. Not just as supporters, ... Read entire post »

The post Time for a joint vision on gender-responsive leadership first appeared on FBA-bloggen.
2021-02-10 16:09

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Lena Sundh

Geographic expertise

Topical expertise

Languages

How can we prevent genocide? FBA and ISCI gather researchers and experts for this Autumn’s most important conversation

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Read our publications

The Gender-Responsive Leader's Handbook