Niranjali Amerasinghe

Niranjali Amerasinghe

Executive Director

Meet Niranjali, our fearless Executive Director. She is a leader in the fight against poverty and injustice, overseeing the management and operations of the U.S. office while fostering engagement with the global federation.

With her vast experience in climate change and human rights, Niranjali previously served as a Senior Associate at the World Resources Institute (WRI). She led the Finance Center’s policy work on international climate finance and the Green Climate Fund. She also directed the Climate & Energy Program at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), where she developed legal strategies to shift finance away from fossil fuel investments. Her expertise in international climate negotiations, forest governance, and accountability has earned her recognition in numerous reputable publications, including The Economist, Reuters, and The Guardian, as well as appearances on the BBC.

Niranjali holds an LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from the George Washington University Law School and an LL.B from the University of Bristol. She is a classically trained musician and avid gardener. She was born and raised in Sri Lanka.

POSTS BY Niranjali Amerasinghe

Blog Post /

Big Corporate Leadership Will Not Save Us

February 24, 2023 By

I was disappointed, on multiple levels, to hear about the Biden administration’s nomination of Ajay Banga, a private equity executive with no experience in public service, to head the World Bank.  First, the U.S. should have no real right to unilaterally name the World Bank President – it does so…

Blog Post

Truth Hurts: UN Women just took a reality test, turns out BlackRock shouldn’t be in their DNA

September 1, 2022 By

After UN Women announced a partnership with BlackRock to promote gender lens investing, the outcry was predictably deafening. Hundreds of feminist organizations signed a letter demanding the repudiation of the partnership. Why? Because BlackRock, with nearly $10 trillion in assets under management, has a penchant for prioritizing profit over human…

Insight /

If women stop, the world stops

March 6, 2020 By

By Niranjali Amerasinghe & Jenna Farineau “Women’s rights are human rights.” Famous words delivered by then First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference for Women. The conference is best known for resulting in the Beijing Action Plan, which not only recognized women’s rights as human rights…