Senior Director for Sustainable Development Initiatives
Julie Garfieldt Kofoed is the Senior Director for Sustainable Development Initiatives with the United Nations Foundation, working on the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the elevation of the least developed countries and the amplification of civil society within the UN system.
Julie joined UN Foundation from a position as Head of Human Rights, Social Sustainability, at the UN Global Compact (2019-2021), the United Nations’ corporate sustainability initiative. In this capacity, she led the UN Global Compact’s engagement on human rights with businesses, governments, law firms and associations, civil society, and the UN system to promote the Global Compact’s Ten Principles and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Agenda at the global and local level.
Prior to her work with the UN Global Compact, Julie served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, most recently as the Senior Human Rights Policy Adviser with the Permanent Mission of Denmark to the United Nations in New York (2012 – 2019). She has extensive experience in United Nations negotiations on, inter alia, sustainable development, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, the rights of indigenous peoples and has led numerous negotiations on General Assembly resolutions on the prevention of torture.
Julie has held a number of positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and additionally worked as an attorney and assistant attorney with a Copenhagen-based corporate law firm (2003-2010).
Julie holds a master’s degree in law from the University of Copenhagen.
