After her graduation in 1982, Kunanayakam joined the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Geneva, where she worked until 1983. Between 1983 and 1984 she served as a consultant and policy adviser to the Lutheran World Federation. In late July 1983 she sent a fax to the Lutheran World Federation delegates attending the World Council of Churches conference in Vancouver, appraising them of the recent anti-Tamil riots that had occurred in Sri Lanka: