Miwa is United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s Director for Operations, overseeing field-based technical assistance across the globe with an innovative change mindset. UNODC is a department of the UN Secretariat assisting Member States fight transnational organized crime, corruption and terrorism, providing assistance to counter crime like illicit drug trafficking, human trafficking, smuggling of migrants and violence against women etc. and creating capacity for criminal justice and crime prevention.

She previously served as UNWOMEN’s Regional Director for Asia Pacific, overseeing women’s empowerment support in 42 countries. This was preceeded by assignment as UNWOMEN’s Country Director for Egypt, following 12 years of work with UNODC in various capacity, from assiting Afghanistan in post-conflict peacebuilding to supporting inter-governemntal norm setting. A proud Sophia University graduate (BA in Comparative Politics & MA in International Relations) with PhD awarded by Univerysity of Vienna (Political Science). She has spent the past two decades serving in the global public sector in New York, The Hague, Vienna, Kabul, Cairo, Bangkok. Since June 2018, she resides in Vienna with her husband and their 11 year old son, after 3 years of professional life away from her family.