Deodat Maharaj is deputy secretary-general for economic and social development at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. He was previously chief of the division for Afghanistan and regional bureau for Asia and the Pacific at the U.N. Development Program headquarters in New York. He also served as chief of staff in the UNDP’s regional bureau for Asia and the Pacific, and has lived and worked in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Guyana and Tanzania.