Bio
Ms Tomoko Nishimoto
ILO's Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, January 2015 - July 2020
Ms Tomoko Nishimoto had served as the ILO’s Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific from January 2015 to July 2020. As such, she oversaw the ILO’s operations in 34 of the ILO's 36 member States in Asia and the Pacific (work in Japan and Myanmar is overseen by the ILO's Headquarters in Geneva).
A key part of her role was to stimulate and foster dialogue between social partners (governments, workers and employers) across Asia-Pacific, helping them to develop and implement coherent strategies that addressed intertwined issues of sustainable development.
She supported the development of their capacity to respond to the increasingly complex issues generated by a rapidly evolving world of work. From the Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting in 2016 (where the ILO’s tripartite constituents agreed to join forces to promote inclusive growth, social justice and decent work), to the national and regional dialogues on the future of work, Ms Nishimoto had been at the forefront of the ILO’s mission: promoting jobs and protecting people.
She provided strategic and technical guidance supporting ILO’s work in a wide range of areas including climate resilience, decent work and sustainable development, disaster risk reduction, gender equality, good governance, human and labour rights, labour migration, poverty reduction, private sector development, safety and health at work and social protection.
Ms Nishimoto had more than 30 years of experience in the UN system. She had held senior management positions in UNDP, UNICEF and UNEP (UN Environment), in both field offices and at agency headquarters. Prior to joining the ILO, she served as the Director of the Division for Regional Cooperation (2010-14) at the UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, providing UNEP’s six Regional Offices with leadership, guidance and oversight, and spearheading UNEP’s engagement with stakeholders, other UN agencies and major organizations.
Ms Nishimoto relished the opportunities her assignments had given her to work with diverse functional groups, across a wide spectrum of programmes and operations. These included programming, monitoring and evaluation, financial management, human resource management and communications/advocacy.
A key part of her role was to stimulate and foster dialogue between social partners (governments, workers and employers) across Asia-Pacific, helping them to develop and implement coherent strategies that addressed intertwined issues of sustainable development.
She supported the development of their capacity to respond to the increasingly complex issues generated by a rapidly evolving world of work. From the Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting in 2016 (where the ILO’s tripartite constituents agreed to join forces to promote inclusive growth, social justice and decent work), to the national and regional dialogues on the future of work, Ms Nishimoto had been at the forefront of the ILO’s mission: promoting jobs and protecting people.
She provided strategic and technical guidance supporting ILO’s work in a wide range of areas including climate resilience, decent work and sustainable development, disaster risk reduction, gender equality, good governance, human and labour rights, labour migration, poverty reduction, private sector development, safety and health at work and social protection.
Ms Nishimoto had more than 30 years of experience in the UN system. She had held senior management positions in UNDP, UNICEF and UNEP (UN Environment), in both field offices and at agency headquarters. Prior to joining the ILO, she served as the Director of the Division for Regional Cooperation (2010-14) at the UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, providing UNEP’s six Regional Offices with leadership, guidance and oversight, and spearheading UNEP’s engagement with stakeholders, other UN agencies and major organizations.
Ms Nishimoto relished the opportunities her assignments had given her to work with diverse functional groups, across a wide spectrum of programmes and operations. These included programming, monitoring and evaluation, financial management, human resource management and communications/advocacy.