Ms. Sweta Saxena was the Chief of Staff and the Director of Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. From 2018–2022, she served as the Chief in the Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development Division at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand, where she led 4 flagship reports that mainstreamed sustainable development in economic policymaking. Prior to this, Ms. Saxena worked at the IMF (Washington DC), BIS (Switzerland) and University of Pittsburgh (USA). Her research has appeared in top journals (AER, JEL, JIE).

Ms. Saxena has a PhD in economics from the University of Washington, an M.A. in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a B.A. in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University.