Dhuwarakha is a national of Sri Lanka and an international development expert, with 20 years of strategic planning and programming experience with UNICEF and UNHCR in the areas of adolescent/youth development and participation, gender, and child protection. This includes experience in humanitarian and development setting across some six countries.

As the Chief of Generation Unlimited, Youth Development and Partnerships with UNICEF India, she currently leads and coordinates one of the largest initiatives with and for young people on learning, skilling, employment, youth innovations, and civic engagement with support from public and private sector partners. She has previously worked with the UNICEF Regional Office of West and Central Africa and in Sierra Leone, where she managed the programmes on child protection and adolescents including the support to the       Ebola response.

Prior to this, she worked in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka with UNICEF and UNHCR, and she was involved in design and implementation of child protection and education programmes in complex emergency settings including the Tsunami response in 2004 – 05. She has also worked as a Research Fellow with University of Melbourne, Australia in   2007.

She holds a Masters in Law from University of London, leadership courses from University of Melbourne and INSEAD and a bachelor’s in business administration from Curtin University of Technology, Australia.