Executive Director for International Cooperation, CSCAP Secretariat
The Secretariat hereby formally announces the appointment of David Abonyi as Executive Director for International Cooperation, CSCAP Secretariat, entrusted with providing strategic leadership for CSCAP’s international engagement and strengthening cooperation with governments, international organizations, development partners, diplomatic missions, policy institutions, financial institutions, and the private sector across the Asia–Pacific region and beyond.
Mr. Abonyi brings substantial senior-level experience spanning the Government of Canada, the United Nations system, international development, economic policy, and regional cooperation. His professional background combines government policy experience with international advisory work, providing him with a strong institutional perspective on how public policy, development cooperation, financing, trade, investment, and private-sector participation can be connected to advance sustainable development.
A significant part of his international policy experience was developed through his service as Senior Program Policy Analyst at Global Affairs Canada, within the Partnerships for Development Innovation Branch. In this role, he worked within Canada’s international development architecture, contributing to policy and programme environments concerned with international partnerships and development cooperation.
Mr. Abonyi also served as Senior Technical Advisor at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), within the Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development Division. This role placed his work within the regional policy environment of the United Nations, with a focus on issues related to macroeconomic policy, financing for development, and the broader economic development agenda of the Asia–Pacific region.
These senior roles across Global Affairs Canada and UN ESCAP provide Mr. Abonyi with a distinctive understanding of both national and multilateral approaches to international cooperation. His experience enables him to work across institutional boundaries and to connect government priorities, regional development frameworks, international partnerships, and practical implementation.
His professional engagement has also extended to strengthening economic linkages between Canada and Asia. In Bangkok, he has led and coordinated initiatives aimed at strengthening Thai–Canadian business cooperation, facilitating connections between enterprises, and developing collaborative platforms and policy discussions supporting trade, investment, and wider economic engagement between Canada and economies in the Asia–Pacific region.
Mr. Abonyi has further contributed to policy dialogue concerning Canada’s economic engagement with the Indo-Pacific region, including work supporting policy discussions involving stakeholders from government, business, policy institutions, and ASEAN diplomatic representatives. These engagements have strengthened his ability to convene diverse actors around shared economic and development priorities and to translate policy dialogue into opportunities for institutional cooperation.
His wider professional experience includes work relating to private-sector development, regional trade integration, value-chain diversification, sustainable infrastructure, public–private partnerships, risk management, and green finance. Together, these areas provide an important foundation for CSCAP’s objective of connecting sustainability policy with the practical mechanisms required for implementation—including markets, investment, finance, business participation, and international cooperation.
Role within CSCAP
As Executive Director for International Cooperation, Mr. Abonyi will provide strategic direction for the international cooperation portfolio of the CSCAP Secretariat. His mandate will focus on strengthening CSCAP’s engagement with international partners and developing cooperation frameworks capable of translating dialogue into practical partnerships and initiatives.
A central priority of his role will be to strengthen CSCAP as a platform connecting the Asia–Pacific region with international partners across sustainable development, trade, investment, and financing. This includes facilitating engagement among governments, international organizations, diplomatic missions, development institutions, investors, businesses, experts, and other relevant stakeholders.
His leadership will also support the development of cross-regional partnerships and institutional relationships that can contribute to responsible and sustainable supply chains, sustainable trade and investment, financing for development, private-sector participation, and regional economic cooperation.
Through this mandate, CSCAP seeks to move international cooperation beyond dialogue alone and toward partnerships that can connect policy, capital, markets, knowledge, and implementation capacity.
Mr. Abonyi’s combination of experience within the Government of Canada and UN ESCAP, together with his engagement across the Asia–Pacific region, provides an important institutional bridge for this work. His appointment strengthens the Secretariat’s capacity to engage internationally while maintaining a clear focus on practical cooperation and sustainable economic development.
The appointment reflects CSCAP’s recognition that sustainable development increasingly depends upon cooperation across national and institutional boundaries. Governments, international organizations, financial institutions, businesses, producers, investors, and development partners each hold different capabilities; effective regional cooperation requires mechanisms capable of bringing those capabilities together around shared objectives.
The Secretariat expresses its confidence that David Abonyi, as Executive Director for International Cooperation, CSCAP Secretariat, will contribute strategic leadership to expanding CSCAP’s international partnerships, strengthening cross-regional dialogue, and advancing practical cooperation for sustainable development, trade, investment, financing, and responsible economic growth across the Asia–Pacific region and beyond.
Selected Senior International Experience
Senior Program Policy Analyst — Global Affairs Canada
Partnerships for Development Innovation Branch
Senior policy experience within the Government of Canada’s international development and partnership architecture, contributing to policy and programme environments supporting international development cooperation.
Senior Technical Advisor — United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP)
Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development Division
Senior advisory experience within the United Nations regional system, contributing to work related to macroeconomic policy, financing for development, and economic development in the Asia–Pacific region.
Additional roles include analytical and research positions with the Asian Development Bank, Fiscal Policy Research Institute, and the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, focusing on economic policy analysis, development strategy, and project feasibility studies across Asia.
Education
Master of Public Administration (MPA), Maxwell School, Syracuse University – with a focus on economics and international development.
Bachelor of Arts, Honours (BAH), Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario – major concentration in political studies and minor concentration in economics.
Project Finance and Public Private Partnership Fundamentals – Professional Certificate, New York Institute of Finance.
Core Expertise
- International Sustainable Development Policy
- International Cooperation and Institutional Partnerships
- Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development
- Canada–Asia and Indo-Pacific Economic Cooperation
- International Trade and Regional Economic Integration
- Sustainable Trade and Investment
- Private-Sector Development and Value-Chain Development
- Sustainable Infrastructure and Public–Private Partnerships
- Green Finance and Development Finance
- Government–International Organization–Private Sector Engagement
- Cross-Regional Policy Dialogue and Partnership Development
Official Appointment
David Abonyi
Executive Director for International Cooperation
CSCAP Secretariat
International Cooperation • Sustainable Development • Trade • Investment • Financing for Development • Asia–Pacific Partnerships
Issued by the Secretariat Office
Sustainism Initiative (STNSM)
