Full Name
Dr. Nigina Muntean
Job Title
Chief, Innovation and Transformation Branch
Current Employer
UNFPA
Speaker Bio
Dr. Nigina Muntean is the Chief of the Innovation and Transformation Branch at UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.
Dr. Muntean leads the innovation portfolio, focusing on innovations equalizing opportunities for women and girls. She is also tasked with driving and helping to implement institutional transformation and change initiatives to enhance corporate performance and efficiency, ensuring coherence with organizational priorities, Strategic Plans, UN Reform and 2.0, and emerging trends.
She led the creation of the Equalizer, the UNFPA Accelerator Fund, which acts as an investment facility to connect technology and expertise. Its goal is to challenge inequality and guarantee rights and choices for everyone by funding innovations that are initiated by women, designed for women, and developed with women. Dr. Muntean also co-founded and leads the Equity 2030 Alliance, a partnership platform aimed at closing gender equity gaps in science, technology, and financing solutions, as well as the WomenX Collective, an innovative program that introduces advanced solutions to transform the health of women and girls in developing countries through blended financing.
Dr. Muntean has over 25 years of experience in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and rights. She worked with UNFPA and the World Health Organization, as well as with International Planned Parenthood Federation, Médecins Sans Frontières and other public and private entities in the Pacific, Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and at the global level as a practitioner and a global public health advocate for women’s empowerment.
Dr. Muntean holds a Medical Diploma with a specialization in Obstetrics and Gynecology, a Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine, and a Master of Science in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Dr. Muntean leads the innovation portfolio, focusing on innovations equalizing opportunities for women and girls. She is also tasked with driving and helping to implement institutional transformation and change initiatives to enhance corporate performance and efficiency, ensuring coherence with organizational priorities, Strategic Plans, UN Reform and 2.0, and emerging trends.
She led the creation of the Equalizer, the UNFPA Accelerator Fund, which acts as an investment facility to connect technology and expertise. Its goal is to challenge inequality and guarantee rights and choices for everyone by funding innovations that are initiated by women, designed for women, and developed with women. Dr. Muntean also co-founded and leads the Equity 2030 Alliance, a partnership platform aimed at closing gender equity gaps in science, technology, and financing solutions, as well as the WomenX Collective, an innovative program that introduces advanced solutions to transform the health of women and girls in developing countries through blended financing.
Dr. Muntean has over 25 years of experience in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and rights. She worked with UNFPA and the World Health Organization, as well as with International Planned Parenthood Federation, Médecins Sans Frontières and other public and private entities in the Pacific, Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and at the global level as a practitioner and a global public health advocate for women’s empowerment.
Dr. Muntean holds a Medical Diploma with a specialization in Obstetrics and Gynecology, a Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine, and a Master of Science in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
