Panadda (Yui) Changmanee brings extensive experience to the humanitarian and international development sectors. She has a deep knowledge and understanding of complex human trafficking, labour migration and child protection issues, particularly in Southeast Asia, where her work is grounded in many years of field experience, including working directly with refugees, trafficked persons, exploited children and other victims of human rights abuses.

Yui has worked with a wide range of government and UN agencies, and non-government organizations, including in senior project design and management roles on several major anti-trafficking projects. As a member of Plan Sweden’s management team for Asia, for example, she provided strategic guidance on the redesign of the child protection program in Timor-Leste, and supported the implementation of the innovative SEAS of Change project, which tackled the issue of child labour in the fishing industry.

In her roles as national coordinator for the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, and as regional director for Oxfam’s Anti-Human Trafficking program, Yui ensured effective and collaborative partnerships across the Greater Mekong sub-region (GMS). For example, her key support to Thai and Cambodian authorities contributed to the first successful cross-border prosecution of a Khmer trafficker. She subsequently designed Oxfam-Québec’s third-phase anti-trafficking program for the GMS and led the development of complex cross-border interventions for the USAID Asia Counter Trafficking in Persons regional initiative.

Yui’s field research, analysis and evaluative skills have contributed to improved outcomes on a range of national and regional initiatives. For example, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime used her situational analysis of child sex tourism in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and accompanying recommendations to develop a detailed program to counter child sexual exploitation in those countries. Yui’s strategy paper for the International Labour Organization on issues facing migrant workers in Thailand identified both short- and long-term solutions to service gaps. She later helped to facilitate the incorporation of labour exploitation issues into a memorandum of understanding on human trafficking for Thailand’s central region, and supported the development of national guidelines and a quick assessment checklist for labour inspectors.

In terms of project evaluation, Yui conducted a detailed evaluation of World Vision Australia’s Mekong Delta Region Regional Trafficking Strategy Phase 2, and evaluated the Cambodian reintegration component of a regional International Organization for Migration project. She has also led various mid-term reviews, including two for Save the Children’s cross-border project against trafficking and exploitation of migrant and vulnerable children in Laos and CambodiA.

Yui has extensive experience in delivering anti-trafficking and child protection training, including designing and implementing capacity-building programs for regional and national staff working on anti-human trafficking program in the GMS. She also designed and provided lessons in Swedish schools on topics related to human rights, human trafficking and international development.

Yui completed a Master of Arts in international and intercultural management at the School for International Training, Vermont. She has also undertaken advanced monitoring and evaluation training, most recently at INTRAC (International NGO Training and Research Centre), Oxford. Yui brings exceptional language skills to RCG as a native speaker of Thai, with fluency in English and Khmer, and a strong working knowledge of Swedish and Lao.