Regina Bi Nukundj is Chief Livestock Officer under the Food Security Branch at the Department of Agriculture and Livestock in Papua New Guinea. The most preferred title and work she currently undertakes surrounds food security planning and policy therefore prefers to be addressed as the Senior Food Security Policy Officer.
She holds a Master of Science Degree in Animal Production from James Cook University, Australia in 2003. She has worked for the Department of Agriculture and Livestock for 30 years now, being recruited straight into the department after graduating with Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture from University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea.
She has also worked in livestock production space under food security and is now focusing her efforts as a policy planner in the sector. She has served in various capacities in the department, as Livestock extension officer from 1994 -2006 before being transferred into the DAL Head Quarters as Chief Livestock Development Officer from 2007 -2018.
Regina has acted as focal point for PNG FAO and been appointed as National Coordinator of various FAO Technical Corporation Projects under food security programme from 2016 -2023. She has reviewed agriculture research projects funded by ACIAR conducted in PNG.
In preparation towards hosting the PNG APEC 2018, She was appointed as Deputy Coordinator of PNG APEC Agriculture Coordination Team in 2017. She was instrumental in supporting the department in its preparation and successfully hosted 11 sets of Food Security and Agriculture related meetings. During the 2018 PNG APEC year, she initiated discussions on Promoting Women in Agriculture and Fisheries in APEC where it’s been accepted as an important agenda in the following APEC meetings in 2019 (Chile) and 2020 (Malaysia) and rural women agendas recognised in following meetings. She coordinated an APEC project in 2019 to promote active participation of Women in APEC in Agriculture and Fisheries sectors, contributing to improve economic capabilities and improve food security.
In June 2019 -2020 April, she was appointed as the Department of Agriculture and Livestock Acting Deputy Secretary of Economic Research, Policy and Planning Coordination. During that term, she coordinated the formulation of the National Agriculture Medium Term Development Plan 2020 -2022, which was approved by the National Executive Council and launched by the Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture.
Since 2018 to date she has collaborated with IFPRI on a Rural Household Survey on Nutrition and Food Security status and recently in 2023, appointed as IFPRI’s Focal Point within the Department of Agriculture and Livestock. She also plays a key role is connecting other development partners such as ADB, WB, EU, US, DFAT, ACIAR etc to the agriculture sector.