United Nations: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Indian sociologist Saraswathi Menon to a panel that will review peacebuilding activities.

Menon, a former lecturer at Madras University, has extensive experience in women's and development issue. She has been the director of the Policy Division of UN-Women, the UN body for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and the director of the UN Development Program's Evaluation Office. Her other UNDP assignments included postings in Mongolia and Nepal.