Expert Group Meeting on SDG 5 (Gender equality) and its interlinkages with other SDGs

Alma Burciaga González (She/Her) is a women’s and girl’s rights specialist with more than 15 years of experience in advocacy, policy making and training within civil society organisations and international agencies. As Head of Latin America, she´s in charge of the development of Girls Not Brides’ Regional Strategy and lead its implementation.  

Before joining the Girls Not Brides team, she worked as a consultant for international and regional organizations like UN Women, the Organization of American States, and civil organizations in Latin America and abroad. For the last decade, she worked closely with youth led organizations on addressing sexual violence in public spaces and became part of the UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces flagship programme as a Coordinator in Mexico.  

As a specialist on gender and human rights, she has issued substantive thematic reports to international human rights bodies, as well as to national and local governments and non-governmental organizations. She has also contributed to the issuing of policy papers and shadow reports regarding state compliance to international human rights mechanisms.  

Alma has also a solid background on capacity building and facilitated workshops on human rights-based approach and gender perspective in programming and policy planning. She has issued several publications and training materials regarding access to justice for women and girls, focusing on the due diligence principle in cases of violence against women and girls (VAWG).  

Alma holds a master’s degree on the Theory and Practice of Human Rights and a BA in International Relations. She speaks Spanish, English and French. 

Anastasia Holoboff is the Senior Legal Advisor at Women Enabled International, where she conducts research, drafts publications, and implements inclusive programming projects addressing the intersection of disability rights and gender rights and inclusive service provision. Anastasia was the primary author of the UNFPA and WEI publication, Women and Young People with Disabilities: Guidelines for Providing Rights-Based and Gender-Responsive Services to Address GBV and SRHR, available in six languages and accessible formats. Since its publication, Anastasia has been involved globally in implementation projects focused on disability inclusion, including conducting workshops for over 370 stakeholders worldwide and leading needs assessment research on inclusive services in Samoa. Prior to joining WEI, Anastasia served as a Staff Attorney in the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities program at Disability Rights New York.  Anastasia graduated magna cum laude from Cardozo School of Law in 2014, where she was awarded the Telford Taylor Award for Outstanding Achievement in the fields of Constitutional Law and Human Rights.   

Ms. Anna Coates is a gender equality, intersectionality, and health equity expert and advocate working with WHO’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research. In this role she works with counterparts across the whole of the sexual and reproductive health research portfolio to strengthen our crosscutting and dedicated work on gender equality. Anna was previously with the Pan American Health Organization, as Chief of Equity, Gender, and Cultural Diversity and prior to that worked as the Deputy Regional Director for the Americas with UN Women. Anna has published a number of research papers on issues related to gender, sexuality and ethnicity. She holds a PhD on Gender from the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK and a master’s in Modern International Studies from the University of Leeds, UK. Anna is a national from the UK, and has worked in North America, Latin America, Caribbean, Africa, and Asia-Pacific regions. 

Dr. Anwesha Dutta is senior research at Chr Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway with over 10 years’ experience on issues of biodiversity conservation and rural livelihoods. She is a political ecologist by training and her research lies at the intersection of conservation and natural resources extraction (and governance) and violent conflict. She currently is part of and leads projects related to river sand mining, Ecological implications of refugee settlements and on Covid-19 and forestry (all in South Asia). More recently she has diversified her geographical focus to also include research on biodiversity conservation processes in Kenya and Tanzania. 

Avni Amin works at the WHO’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research on violence against women. Her primary focus is to support countries – Ministries of Health – in the translation and uptake of WHO’s normative guidelines and tools to strengthen health systems response to violence against women. She has led the development of clinical guidelines for responding to child and adolescent sexual abuse, the RESPECT prevention framework, and is a lead author of the WHO global plan of action on strengthening health systems response to addressing interpersonal violence, in particular against women and girls and against children. Avni is a passionate feminist scientist with a fierce commitment to gender equality and women’s health. She has a PhD in International Health from the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Hygiene and Public Health. She is originally from India and considers herself as a global citizen.  

Beth Roberts is a law, policy, and gender practitioner who works to strengthen gender-equal and socially inclusive rights to land and natural resources. In her role as Center Director, Beth leads a team of gender experts and specialists across the organization; provides technical support on gender equality and social inclusion to Landesa’s program teams; leads Landesa’s work on the Stand for Her Land campaign as well as on human rights agendas, and contributes to Landesa’s work on climate action and global advocacy more broadly; and works to collaborate with, strengthen, and expand the network of practitioners focused on gender and natural resource justice worldwide. 

Bonney Corbin (she/they) is an urban and regional planner specialising in health and community planning, with postgraduate qualifications in gender based violence and conflict resolution. Bonney is the Chair of the Australian Women’s Health Network, is Head of Policy at MSI Reproductive Choices (Australia), a board member at Genetic Alliance Australia, and on the Policy Advisory Group at Women With Disabilities Australia. Bonney was a facilitator of Hidden Forces, a collaborative white paper on reproductive coercion in Australia published by MSI. Bonney lives and works on Wurundjeri Country, with part of her family having migrated to Australia from Guernsey, Scotland and Ireland. Bonney is a part of justice networks, support spaces and clinical trials across and beyond borders.  

Brenda Behan is an experienced humanitarian and international development operations manager, engineer and environmentalist, currently serving as the Director of Gender with the United Nations World Food Programme, focusing on supporting gender equality and women’s empowerment in the context of food security and nutrition. Prior to this role, Brenda served as the Deputy Regional Director for the WFP Eastern Africa Bureau, as the Senior Deputy Country Director in Kenya, and in technical engineering roles with WFP and the US Government. She has experience in relief, resilience, refugees, and capacity strengthening and emergency response. Brenda holds a masters degree in Community and Economic Development and a bachelors degree in Engineering. She is passionate about WFP’s ability to change lives, gender equality, environmental and social sustainability, and evidence-based approaches to decision-making.

Ms. Cara Williams is the Assistant Director of International Cooperation and Methodology Innovation Centre at Statistics Canada, where she oversees Statistics Canada’s SDG unit, the organization’s international initiatives and statistical capacity development projects, and the Quality and Data Ethics Secretariat. She is also currently the co-chair and Canadian representative on the United Nations Inter-Agency and Expert Advisory Group for Sustainable Development Goal indicators. Prior to this, Cara worked as the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Social Trends and as Senior Researcher for Perspectives on Labour and Income at Statistics Canada where she published several research papers on various social issues in Canada.  Cara has spent the last 25 years at Statistics Canada and prior to this worked for the Government of British Columbia where she conducted socio-economic impact assessments of treaties under negotiation. 

Ms. Williams has completed a BA in Economics from the University of Alberta and a MA in Economics from the University of Victoria. 

Catherine Michaud has been working at Statistics Canada for 15 years. She spent 12 in business and economic statistics where she specialized in prices and price index theory. In 2017, Catherine joined the Quality Secretariat as a senior analyst where she worked on many projects related to quality assurance practices in official statistics. In 2020, Catherine started at Statistics Canada’s SDG unit where, among other SDG work, she was responsible for the development of a Canadian Indicator Framework for SDGs. She is now leading the International relations Section at Statistics Canada, which includes overseeing multiples SDG-related projects. 

Cecilia Ugaz Estrada (Peru) is Director of Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women Office and Special Advisor, Office of the Managing Director, Directorate of Corporate Management and Operations. She formerly was Director of the Policy Research and Statistics Department at UNIDO.  

Cecilia holds a PhD in economics from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris (major: Econometrics of Investment) as well as graduate degrees in economic modelling from France and Peru. Prior to joining UNIDO, she served as United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for Paraguay, as Deputy Resident Representative for UNDP in Argentina and as Deputy Director of the UNDP Human Development Report Office. Cecilia Ugaz Estrada also held various positions with the United Nations and in academia in Switzerland, United Kingdom and Finland as well as with the World Bank in Washington DC. 

Clara Rodríguez Ribas is a Technical Officer on Gender working at the WHO’s Department of Health Emergency Preparedness. Her primary focus is to support WHOs emergencies programme (WHE) in mainstreaming gender – through the identification of entry points for the delivery of a gender-responsive programme. This includes working with technical experts to integrate gender analysis in guidance for Member States, including for the implementation of the International Health Regulations. She has led the development of the first gender mainstreaming strategy for WHE, and coordinates an internal working group of experts from across WHE including Regional Offices. Prior to this role Clara worked on emergency preparedness and response planning with several UN organizations, including UNFPA, UNICEF and UNDP. She has led the research and writing of UN reports on harmful practices towards women and girls, on disaster risk reduction, and on sexual and reproductive health and rights among others. Clara is deeply committed to advancing human rights, gender equality and women’s health. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Political Science from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and holds a Masters degree from University of Kent. She is originally from Argentina.   

Dr Cynthia McDougall is a Senior Research Fellow with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). She leads SEI’s Gender, Environment and Development (GED) research cluster in Asia and co-leads SEI’s global research program on Gender Equality, Social Equity, and Poverty.  This portfolio includes research in the areas including equitable natural resource governance, climate financing, resilience, bioeconomy, food systems and environmental human rights defenders. Dr McDougall is an interdisciplinary social scientist with over 20 years of experience in gender, social equity and inclusion in natural resource and food systems research. Prior to joining SEI, her work included leading gender research for WorldFish in the One CGIAR. There she led gender, equity and inclusion research and integration in smallscale fisheries and aquaculture across Asia, Africa and the Pacific for the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-food Systems (‘FISH’). She has been spearheading the development of gender transformative approaches since 2015, with a particular interest how these approaches can leverage scalable shifts towards equality, equity, poverty reduction, food security and sustainability. Dr McDougall is an active contributor to science outputs and regional and global fora in these areas ( https://www.sei.org/people/cynthia-mcdougall/ ;  https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-mcdougall-phd/ ). 

Dr. Dennis Matanda is a  Senior Program Officer at Population Council, Nairobi. He hold a PhD in International Health Promotion and Development from the University of Bergen, Norway. His area of research covers maternal, child and adolescent health with extensive experience in the use of survey data such as Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). As a co-investigator,  he participated in the evaluation of the use of Chlorhexidine for cord care in neonates under a managed access programme in Bungoma County; Impact evaluation of the contribution of the removal of user fees for maternal health services on universal health coverage in Kenya; and provided technical support for the design and implementation of research projects under the County Innovation Challenge Fund (CICF)—a DFID funded programme on scaling down maternal and neonatal mortality in six counties in Kenya. Together with other consortium members under a research program Evidence to End Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), he used DHS and MICS data to map-out FGM prevalence and study possible correlates of FGM including child marriage, HIV/AIDS, and Fistula in Africa. He is equally involved in implementation science and operation research where he has provided leadership as a principal investigator on a number of studies. Currently, he is the deputy team leader, FGM Data Hub project that provides data and measurement support to the African Led Movement to end FGM; Principal Investigator – Systematic review of effectiveness of interventions designed to prevent or respond to FGM/Global research agenda to accelerate FGM abandonment; and Principal Investigator – Community directed approaches to promote intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy in Kenya: a quasi-experimental study. 

Divya serves as Director, Policy and Advocacy, at Women Deliver and leads the organization’s policy and advocacy program and strategies as it relates to gender equality, health and sexual and reproductive health and rights, climate action, and economic justice and rights. She joined Women Deliver in February 2019 and was responsible to build out the organization’s research portfolio for Women Deliver’s evidence-based advocacy approach. 

Divya is a seasoned international development practitioner having worked for a variety of multilateral development organizations prior to Women Deliver in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Divya’s focus areas included institutional strategy and policy, resource mobilization, coalition building, and development financing. She also worked on on-the-ground development programs related to gender, education, health, and governance in Asia and the Pacific. Divya started her career working for The Hunger Project-India focusing on women’s empowerment issues, particularly women’s leadership in local government. She received her master’s degree in International Relations and International Economics from The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University and her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. 

She is currently Chair of the Advisory Group and Senior Policy Adviser for ENERGIA, the International Network on Gender & Sustainable Energy; Advisor to the EBRD/Green Climate Fund/GovEgypt Programme for Supporting Renewable Energy and Promoting Gender Equality in Egypt, aimed at promoting women’s access to economic opportunities in the sector; Advisor on strategic issues and gender indicators to the EnDev (Energising Development) strategic partnership of likeminded donors and partners to support access to modern energy; and member of the UN/DESA Expert Group on SDG7 Interlinkages with other SDGs, as lead author for the policy brief on tracking interlinkages between SDG7 and SDG5. 

Erin Young is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Public Policy programme at The Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s National Institute for Data Science and AI. She holds a Ph.D. (D.Phil) from the University of Oxford, where she studied the socio-technical practices of interdisciplinary research and development projects building new technologies. Prior to joining the Turing, Erin was an H-STAR Visiting Researcher at Stanford University, and a Researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute. Erin has also held positions as a Consultant at the United Nations (IIEP-UNESCO) in Paris, Kantar in London, and Thomson Reuters in New York City. She has a PGC in International Business Administration and Practice and Organisational Behaviour, and earned scholarships to study at the British Schools of Athens and Rome. She holds an MSc (Distinction) from the University of Oxford in Education (Learning and Technology), and a BA from the University of Cambridge. 

Evelyn Boy-Mena (she/her/hers) is a Technical Officer with the Gender, Equity and Human Rights (GER) Team in the Director-General’s Office of the World Health Organization. She currently leads the coordination, support and provision of technical expertise to collaborative mechanisms and processes for mainstreaming gender in the programmatic and corporate work of the WHO. Evelyn is actively engaged in UN mechanisms dedicated to gender-related work in which WHO participates through the GER Team, mainly: the UN System-wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN-SWAP) and the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE). 

Mr. Gentian Opre, Master of Arts in Public Policy and Management, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2008-2009); Studied Economics at the University of Tirana (1996-2000); Worked as Budget Analyst (2000-2006) and Head of Budget Analysis Division (2006-2009) in the General Directorate of Budget, Ministry of Finance of Albania; Current Position: Director of Budget Analysis and Programming Department, Ministry of Finance and Economy of Albania.

Ginette Azcona is a Research and Data Policy Specialist at UN Women. She joined UN Women in 2010 as a core member of the Research and Data team. Ginette manages the data and statistics for UN Women’s flagship reports and has authored numerous publications on human development, human rights, social justice and gender and development data, including the annual Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot. Ginette is UN Women’s leading focal point on gender, data and the SDGs.   

Huda Alsahi is a Social Policy Officer in the Gender team at the Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality (ESP) division of FAO. She has more than 6 years of experience in the fields of gender, empowerment and digital inclusion. She holds a PhD degree with Cum Laude in Political Science and Sociology from Scuola Normale Superiore and the University of Bologna in Italy. She was a visiting researcher at the Gender Studies Department at the University of California, Los Angeles and worked as a lecturer for ICT-related courses in universities in Italy and the Kingdom of Bahrain.   

Kate Donald is the Acting Executive Director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), a civil society organization with a global team that works to harness the power of human rights to inspire fairer and more sustainable economies. Kate has been with CESR since 2014, heading up work on issues including economic policy, the Sustainable Development Goals, and women's human rights. Before joining CESR, Kate worked for the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, and the International Council on Human Rights Policy. She holds an interdisciplinary Master’s degree in Human Rights from the London School of Economics.

Kathryn (“Katie”) Tobin has worked on sustainable development, gender justice, and human rights since 2011. She began her career at the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service before co-founding Regions Refocus, an initiative that advances feminist and progressive policy with autonomous regional civil society networks. Before joining WEDO, Katie worked to eradicate inequalities in access to water and sanitation through international advocacy at WaterAid. Katie has also consulted on advocacy and organizational strategy for several UN-based organizations, including UNANIMA, Global Policy Forum, and the Mining Working Group, and two NGOs in Uganda (her favorite place). Katie has a Bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies from Barnard College of Columbia University and a Master’s from School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). A wannabe novelist and amateur yogini, Katie lives in unceded territory of the Munsee Lenape in the Bronx, with her partner and their two-year-old, Tori.

Dr Keina Yoshida is a barrister specialising in international human rights law at Doughty Street Chambers. They are also a research officer at the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics and Political Science working on the ERC funded project Gendered Peace. Keina has an LLB (ling Franc), LLM and PhD in law and sits on the editorial board of Feminist Legal Studies. Select published work includes: Feminist Conversations on Peace (Bristol University Press, 2022), The nature of Women, Peace and Security: a Colombian perspective, International Affairs, Vol. 97, Iss. 1, January 2021 (short listed for the International Affairs Early Career Prize 2022); The domestic prosecution of gender crimes in Argentina, Human Rights Quarterly, 2017. Keina has taught and lectured on human rights and feminist international law at universities including the University of Iceland, SOAS, City University, the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (Ghana) and LSE. They have a forthcoming book with Jennifer Robinson.  

Dr. Kristin Diemer (PhD, Sociology) has been researching domestic violence for more than 20 years with a focus on violence against women and children, perpetrator programs, as well as pathways and service systems for response. Since 2017 she has co-led the kNOwVAWdata course for global capacity building to improve measurement of VAW in line with SDGs 5.2.1 and 5.2.2.  In Australia she developed  the first VAW&C multi-indicator administrative data trend analysis and worked on law reform to remove the homicide defense of provocation, improve prosecution of sexual offences, and review of domestic and family violence laws.  She is a member of the expert advisory panels for the Australian national prevalence survey of violence (2013-current); the National Community Attitudes on Violence against Women survey (2014-current); and Universities Australia Sexual Assault and Harassment survey. Globally she provides technical advice and training for conducting national surveys to measure violence against women (Kiribati, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Samoa, Fiji, Indonesia, Peru, Cambodia, and Vietnam). 

Laura Crivelli’s passion for international cooperation emerged at teen-age, as a highly involved human rights’ volunteer. She first enrolled with the local Red Cross in her home country (Switzerland), working with refugee and migrant populations, especially with families, non-accompanied children, and older persons. She then supported livelihood and education projects in South America, West Africa, and South Asia, where she engaged with grassroot organizations. During her studies in International Affairs and International Law, she was also Youth Representative at the United Nations. Fascinated by the complexity of multi-stakeholder partnerships and the triple nexus, she worked with a range of public and private actors on sustainable development in Geneva. She also operated as Legal Officer with expertise in gender and human rights during five years in Bolivia, where she specialized in gender-based violence (GBV) response and prevention. She is currently working as Associate GBV Officer at UNHCR (HQ), where she also covered temporarily the gender equality portfolio in 2021. Laura is certified in quality management of humanitarian projects, conflict resolution, and child protection. 

Laura Rahm, Ph.D., is a Marie-Curie Research Fellow at the Democracy Institute of the Central European University. She received her Ph.D. in Political Sociology and Demography from the Sorbonne University, Paris. Laura Rahm is also an Associate Researcher at the Paris-based Center for Population and Development. Moreover, she is affiliated with the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute, the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and the Sociology Department of the University of Toronto.  

Dr. Laura Rahm specializes in global governance, population, and gender policies with a focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights, sex selection, son preference, and harmful practices. She has over 15 years of work experience in international gender programmes, having worked with NGOs, national governments, international banks, and development partners. She has been a senior consultant for the World Bank and the United Nations. Currently, she serves as an international expert and trainer for the UNFPA-EU Global Programme on Addressing Gender-biased Sex Selection and Related Harmful Practices.

Laura Turquet is a Policy Advisor and Deputy Chief of Research and Data at UN Women. For the past 12 years, she has worked at UN Women leading major research and data initiatives that inform the organization’s advocacy objectives and empower civil society and governments to seek and implement change, including most recently Beyond COVID-19: A Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice. Laura leads the organisation’s flagship report, Progress of the World’s Women, and has co-authored three editions on women’s access to justice, women’s economic empowerment and women’s rights in families. She is a co-founder of the UN Feminist Network and previously worked at ActionAid UK, the Institute of Development Studies and the Fawcett Society. 

 Liane Schalatek is the Associate Director of the Washington Office of  the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, a German political party foundation, affiliated with the German Green Party, with 33 offices worldwide working on sustainable development, human rights and gender democracy. At the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Liane spearheads the foundation's work on international climate finance with an emphasis on the transparency and accountability of public climate finance flows and on equitable, human-rights centered and gender-transformative access to climate funding, including via the Green Climate Fund (GCF), where she represented civil society concerns to the Board as a CSO Active Observer for Developed Countries from 2016-2019, and other climate funds. She has more than 20 years of experience in global governance issues, specifically in international development and finance and international climate negotiations, where a particular interest of her work revolved around engendering macroeconomic and finance policy. She holds dual master degrees in political science/political economy and international affairs.  

Lori Trawinski, Ph.D., CCDP/AP,CFP® is the Director of Finance and Employment at AARP’s Public Policy Institute where she is an age diversity thought leader and researcher. Her recent work focuses on how age diversity presents opportunities for businesses and organizations across different sectors. Dr. Trawinski is also responsible for research and analyses relating to employment, foreclosures, financial security, and consumer debt - all issues facing older Americans. She is also an adjunct instructor at NYU School of Professional Studies where she teaches in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion certificate program.  Dr. Trawinski is a member of the U.S. Department of State Speakers Program. A Cornell Certified Diversity Practitioner, she has spoken and presented widely about age diversity and the importance of an intergenerational workforce at companies, academic institutions, government agencies, and at a variety of in-person and virtual conferences. 

Luiza Drummond Veado (she/her) is OutRight's United Nations Program Officer based in New York. She is a Brazilian attorney with an International Human Rights Law LLM from the University of Essex. She worked at the Rapporteurship on Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Persons of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, where she developed thematic reports and worked on regional leading cases on LGBTI rights. Prior to this, she was a member of the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Essex and has worked at the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, the Center for Justice and International Law and the Minas Gerais State Human Rights Council and its Truth Commission. Luiza has also published several academic articles on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics; trained more than one hundred activists and government officials on international and regional non-discrimination standards, with a focus on LGBTI rights; and has coordinated an award-winning video campaign on violence against LGBTI persons in the Americas.

MD MPH and specialist in Epidemiology and Medical Statics. President and founder of FEIM, an NGO working to improve women's rights since 1989. Co-coordinator of Women Won’t Wait, a global campaign to eliminate VAW and HIV and Director of the Latin American and the Caribbean Women Health Network (1991- 1999). She attended the Río Conference in 1992, Cairo Conference in 1994 and Beijing Conference in 1995 and did their follow up. In 2000/2001 she was Chief of the HIV/AIDS National Program in MOH and Coordinator of WB Project. Member of UNAIDS Reference group on HIV and HR (2002-2011). She was twice elected as NGO member of UNAIDS PCB. Member of Civil Society Regional Advisory Committee UNWOMEN till 2016. Since 2012, Co-Chair of the CONGO CSW LAC. Member of WMG since 2014. Awarded by the Argentinian MOH, Women Deliver and Newsweek recognized her as one of the “150 women that moved the world” and in 2017 by NGO CSW NY as “Distinguished Woman of the Year”. In 2019 she was included by the BBC as one of 100 Influencers and in 2020 by Politicals.  She is author and editor of 10 books and more than 150 papers and articles. She was the founder and coordinator of the Women's Human Rights Defenders for G20 Observatory's as part of the W20 and local coordinator of the C20 Gender Group for the G20 Argentina 2018. She has been elected as Women’s Mayor Group WMG Organizing Partner for Latin America and the Caribbean for period 2019-2020. In 2021 was elected CoChair of the MGoS Coordination Mechanism. 

Ms. Madhu Mehra is a feminist lawyer, founder and former director of Partners for Law in Development (PLD), a women’s rights organisation where she currently heads research and training initiatives. Her work on child early marriage, sexual and gender-based violence, targeting of women as witches among others critiques the predominant reliance on criminalisation at the cost of transformatory victim centric approaches. She has active in legal advocacy for decriminalising same sex relations and adultery in India, and her current efforts aim for decriminalising adolescent sexuality.  Through PLD she leads the National Coalition Advocating for Adolescent Concerns.  

Her work on CEDAW nationally and regionally in Asia, as a trainer, researcher, writer and in civil society processes assisting the country reviews undertaken by CEDAW spans nearly 30 years. She undertook the review of 15 years of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (1994-2009) for the OHCHR. Her contribution to gender policy in relation to SGBV was recognised in Apolitical 100 most influential in 2021. 

Madhura is a nonbinary person and queer feminist activist from India. They are the Human Rights and Advocacy Manager at Asia Pacific Transgender Network. They have over a decade's experience in grassroot movement building. Their areas of expertise are gender, sexuality and forced migration.   

Michelle McIsaac is an Economist and health workforce specialist at the World Health Organization (WHO). She has advised ministries and governmental agencies across the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Pacific on health, labour and development issues.  

At the WHO she leads the program of work on gender and equity in the global health workforce. Her program of work covers the rural and remote health workforce, women in the health and care labour market, and the care economy. She co-chairs the Global Health Workforce Gender Equity Hub.  

Michelle has a PhD in Economics from the University of Melbourne and has held academic positions in Canada, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands. 

A women’s rights and environmental rights advocate and Director of Women4Biodiversity , Mrinalini works on policy advocacy and research on intersection of gender equality and women and girls rights and environmental justice. She has been working many years in environmental governance and human rights issues particularly focused on integrating indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights, including women’s rights into the decisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). She is also the coordinator of the Women Caucus - UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which supports women's civil society active engagement through active participation, information sharing and inputs into the policy space on biodiversity and environment related processes at the CBD 

Dr. Toubia is a researcher, practitioner and activist in the field of sexual & reproductive health and rights. She started as the first woman surgeon in Sudan then moved to work internationally first with the Population Council in New York then as the Founder CEO of RINBO: Health & Rights for African Women. She served as a technical advisor to WHO and several UN agencies, national governments in the North and South, the World Bank and was an Adjunct Professor at Columbia School of Public health and a visiting lecturer at Harvard University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. 

She divides her time between London and Khartoum where she is the Director of the Institute for Reproductive Health and Rights of Sudan 

Dr. Nandini Azad is an Internationally, Regionally and Nationally known eminent leader on Gender, Poverty, Cooperatives, Financial inclusion and Development issues. Having worked for over four decades at different levels with National Governments, International Government, (multilaterals), Cooperatives and the Non-Profit Sector.  

Recently a new film on her work by the Indian Parliament (TV) is entitled Nandini Azad: ‘Crusader for Women (in Cooperatives). The link is at https://youtu.be/8VmWyBLBhPY 

Dr Niluka Wijekoon is a medical epidemiologist. She works in the Emergencies Programme at WHO headquarters in Geneva, in the Department of Health Emergency Interventions.   

Dr Niluka is a technical expert in surveillance, early warning, alert and response in emergency settings. She has started her public health career with the United Nation’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) as the Emergency Health Coordinator in Sri Lanka, during the ethnic crisis. She has first joined WHO in 2011 as the Officer in Charge (OIC) of WHO’s emergency hub in Vavuniya, Sri Lanka. She has been with WHO headquarters since 2014 and has worked in emergencies and outbreaks around the world, including in Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leon, Guinea, Nigeria, South Sudan, Mozambique, Rohingya crisis is Bangladesh, NE Syria, Yemen, DRC, and Indonesia.  Dr Niluka also manages WHO’s electronic tool for early warning, alert and response named EWARS-in-a-Box, an innovative solution for outbreak detection in emergency settings.  

Before embarking on a public health career, Dr Niluka worked as an emergency physician in both public and private healthcare sectors. She obtained her Master of Public Health from The University of Sheffield, UK and Master of Biostatistics and Epidemiology from French School of Public Health, Paris, France (École des hautes études en santé publique).  

Dr Niluka has been a human rights and gender champion from the onset of her career. She is the Gender, Equity and Human Rights (GER) focal person for her department at WHO and an active member of the Gender Working Group (GWG) of Health Emergencies Program.  Her extensive work in gender and rights inform equitable policies and interventions in preparedness, response, and recovery from health emergencies. 

Professor Rachel Jewkes is the Executive Scientist in the South African Medical Research Council. She is a medical doctor and Specialist in Public Health Medicine. She has led the South African Medical Research Council’s Gender and Health Research programme for 25 years. She is a founder member of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative and from 2013-2020 was the Consortium Director of the UKAID-funded What Works to Prevent Violence? Global Programme, leading research on prevention of violence against women in 13 countries. She is a member of the Global Programme Advisory Committee of the UN Trust Fund, Leadership Council of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative and  a member of the WHO’s Expert Advisory Panel on Injury and Violence Prevention and Control.  She is an author of over 300 publications.  

Dr. Salma Nims was appointed Secretary-General of the Jordanian National Commission for Women in 2014. She works to further its mission to transform the national development agenda to ensure the full and equal participation of men and women in the development process, as means to achieving development as well as gender equality in Jordan. She has 19 years’ experience in the areas of Gender and development and has been an activist for Women Rights since the early 1990s.  

Dr. Nims holds a PhD. in Development Planning (2004) and a MSc. in Sustainable Development (1998) from University College London, University of London. Since 2004, she provided professional development and gender consultancy services to several government and international organisations. Those included: the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Education, UNDP, UNWomen, UNFPA, UNICEF and CIDA. She was previously the Executive Director of “Taqaddam” Platform, a social movement aiming at building a positive discourse towards reform and change in Jordan.  

Dr. Nims served as a member of the Advisory Group to the High-Level Task Force on Financing for Gender Equality for the United Nations. She sits on the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Women Empowerment and co-chairs the “National Committee on Pay Equity” with the SG of the Ministry of Labour and the “Gender Partners Coordination Group” with the EU Ambassador to Jordan and UN Women Country Representative in Jordan. Dr Nims  is a member of the Board of Trustees for Plan International UK. She also serves on the boards of the Arab Women Organisation, and the Higher Population Council, as well as several national strategic planning steering committees. She is active on social media, raising issues relating to social equity and human rights, with specific reference to women rights. In 2019, Dr. Nims received Said Foundation Outstanding Achievement Prize, which is awarded to individuals judged to have contributed significantly to the development of the region. 

Ms. Sanaz Javadi Farahzadi, lawyer, lecturer, mentor and adviser to international organizations, local governments, academia, private sector, United Nations and European Union on IP technical assistance, trade development projects, gender equality and women empowerment in Europe, Middle East, Africa and South East Asia.  

18 years’ experience in international environment, international trade,women empowerment ,teaching and mentorship  

Sandra has recently started as an Associate Protection Officer working in UNHCR’s Division of International Protection in the Gender Equality Unit. Prior to joining UNHCR, Sandra has experience from the Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration working on asylum seekers’ pathways to the Danish labour market. Sandra also has experience from The European Commission’s work on development and international cooperation in collaboration with CSOs, including on gender and diasporas. Sandra additionally has field experience working for a local NGO focusing on women’s economic empowerment projects in Timor-Leste. Sandra holds a master’s of international law and security and a BA in international relations. 

Sharon Bhagwan Rolls is a 2nd generation Pacific Island feminist she works to progress feminist practice and women's rights using an inclusive peace, development and humanitarian nexus approach to contribute to building peaceful and inclusive communities. With a professional background in broadcast media, she remains committed to the development of an information and communication ecosystem that results in the production and distribution of content that reflects diverse women's voice and experiences which in turn enable them to celebrate and claim their ideas and innovation to realise transformative change. 

Sharon is currently a member of Global Fund for Women Board of Directors and Pacific Regional Representative Gender Liaison of the International Steering Group of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), a member of the World Pulse Global Council and National Vice President of the YWCA of Fiji. She is a member of the ​UNWomen convened Women’s Resilience to Disasters (WRD) Board, ​Global Consultative Group of gender experts for the midterm review of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, Pacific Climate Security Network (PCSN) and Pacific EVAWG Civil Society Reference Group to the UN.

Following a successful broadcast career in Fiji, Sharon co-established FemLINKpacific: Media Initiatives for Women. Between 2000 – 2018 she led the organisation to develop the Pacific’s first women’s “suitcase radio” station and community media network and the Women’ Weather Watch inter-operable information and communication system. 

hea Gopaul is the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York for the International Organisation of Employers (IOE). For over 100 years, IOE has been one of the leading voices for business at the global level and on the ground with more than 150 employer federation members in 145 countries, representing the interests of over 50 million companies. In her role as the Permanent Representative to the UN, Gopaul has been leading an initiative to enhance and increase private sector engagement with the United Nations at the country, regional and global level. Through dialogues, publications, outreach and communications projects, the initiative seeks to stimulate collaboration and foster partnerships between the public and private sectors to Build Back Better from COVID-19 and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Gopaul is the Founder and Executive Director Emeritus of the Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN), a coalition of companies and organizations addressing the skills mismatch and youth unemployment crisis. She has over 20 years of experience in the UN system (ILO, UN, WHO), and has authored numerous articles on private sector engagement, youth unemployment and employer driven education. She is recognized as an IZA Fellow, is a member of the G20/B20 Employment and Education Taskforce and an International Gender Champion. Gopaul holds a Master’s degree in International Education from Columbia University, an Honorary Doctorate degree in Humane Letters and undergraduate degree from Point Park University. 

Sheba Tejani is a feminist economist interested in power and inequalities. She is currently a Lecturer in the International Development Department at the University of Birmingham. She was previously Assistant Professor at the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School in New York. Her published work focuses on the links between trade, automation and distribution. She is particularly interested in gender inequalities in the labour market, informality and global value chains. Sheba has consulted with various international organizations including the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the International Labor Organization (ILO), UN Women and the World Bank. She has a long and ongoing association with the women's movement in India. 

Sol Prieto is the National Director of Economy, Equality and Gender in the Ministry of Economy, where she has served as team coordinator for the last two years and actively worked in the generation of key policies to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on women, such as the Emergency Family Income, and to include them in the recovery strategy. She is also a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and a professor at University of Buenos Aires (UBA), University of San Andrés (UDESA) and University of Avellaneda (UNDAV). She holds a Phd degree in Social Sciences from UBA, a Master in Political Science from University Torcuato Di Tella and  has a degree in Sociology from UBA. She is the author of more than 30 publications (including books, articles in specialized magazines, book chapters and technical reports), linked to the gender equality agenda. 

Sonal Shah is the Executive Director of the Centre of Sustainable and Equitable Cities and the founder of The Urban Catalysts, advising multiple stakeholders –governments, development banks, philanthropicorganizations and think tanks on sustainable, equitable city planning and transport.

Over the last 15 years, Sonal has worked across 10 states in India, as well as Asia, Middle Eastand the United Statesfocusing on sustainable urban transport, non-motorized transport, integratedpublic transport, land-useandtransport integration and gender equity. Sonal was responsible for introducing India’s first gender sensitive urban planning guidelines andactively contributed towards revising India’s national urban street design guidelines (IRC codes) to make them people-oriented.

Sonal has led projects supported by the World Bank, AfD, UK Aid,ADB, IKI, Oak Foundation, Gates Foundation, GIZand Bloomberg Philanthropies. She has taughtatnumerous institutions such as theIndianInstitute for Human Settlements, Anant National University, KRVIA, Academy of Architecture and the JJ School of Architecture.

Sonal graduated from the MSc Urban Planning program from Columbia University. She was featured in the Alumni Spotlightin Fall 2013-14, and in the Remarkable Women in Transport2020by the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative. She was also part of the NITI Aayog’s WEP-UNDP programon Innovative Finance.

Dr Sonia Dias is a sociologist by training with a PhD in Political Sciences on the role of participatory governance in inclusive solid waste management in Brazil. She is WIEGO's global waste specialist. She lives in Brazil and does global as well as local work with informal waste workers for more than 35 years. 

Sophia Huyer is Gender and Social Inclusion Leader at Accelerating the Impact of CGIAR Climate Research (AICCRA), as well as Director of Women in Global Science and Technology (WISAT) based in Brighton, Canada. She has extensive experience in research and policy analysis on global gender equality issues relating to technology, innovation and sustainable development. She is a member of the Gender Advisory Board of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (GAB-CSTD) and was Senior Advisor to the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) at The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) from 2009-2013. Recent publications include an update of the UNCTAD report “Applying a Gender Lens to Science, Technology and Innovation” (2022), “From vulnerability to agency: gender equality in climate adaptation and mitigation” in Advancing gender equality through agricultural and environmental research: past, present and future (IFPRI, 2020), and “Gender and Food Security in a Changing Climate” (2019) in Taking stock: Data and evidence on gender equality in digital access, skills and leadership, UNU Institute on Computing and Society/International Telecommunications Union. Sophia is a Visiting Fellow at the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and a member of the Scientific Committee of the AWARD One Planet Climate Fellowship.  She held a Fulbright Fellowship at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2000. She received her Ph.D. from York University in Toronto. 

Tara Patricia Cookson is a Canada Research Chair and Assistant Professor of Gender, Development, and Global Public Policy at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA) at the University of British Columbia. She uses ethnographic and mixed methods to study how power operates in development policy, with a focus on gender data, social protection, and care work. Her approach to public scholarship integrates academic research, practice-oriented publications, and direct engagement with international policy processes. She does this in part through Ladysmith, a feminist research consultancy she cofounded that helps international organizations collect, analyze and take action on gender data. She has collaborated with global development institutions such as UN Women, the International Labour Organization, UNICEF, Global Affairs Canada, USAID, Action Against Hunger, and the OECD-DAC Governance Network, among others. Dr. Cookson is the author of the award-winning book, Unjust Conditions: Women’s Work and the Hidden Cost of Cash Transfer Programs (University of California Press, Open Access). Her research has been published in Antipode, Gender Place & Culture, the International Journal of Feminist Politics, and Global Public Health. She regularly contributes commentary and analysis to outlets such as Devex, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and the Toronto Star. 

Dr. Taveeshi Gupta is the Director of Research, Evaluation and Learning at Promundo-US. Her expertise lies in understanding the role of gender norms in perpetuating violence against women and children, creating inequitable home and workplace environments, and reinforcing inter-generational transmission of harmful gender identities for boys and girls. At Promundo-US, she manages the global portfolio of research projects. She has co-authored the State of the World’s Father's report in 2019, co-authored the Paid Leave in the Pandemic report in 2020, led the Bullying Crisis report in 2018, and co-authored several other technical reports on child marriage in Georgia and adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Rwanda. Taveeshi has been trained in rigorous mixed methodological research and is widely published. Before joining Promundo-US, she worked as an independent consultant with Overseas Development Institute, UNICEF ROSA, Plan International, and Harvard's Kennedy School in a variety of contexts globally, particularly South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. She has a BA and MA in Psychology from University of Delhi, and a PhD in Developmental Psychology from New York University

Valentina Bodrug-Lungu, PhD, University Professor, has 19 years’ experience in Women Human Rights and Gender Equality promotion. She is President of NGO “Gender-Center”/Co-founder of Platform for Gender Equality, Republic of Moldova. At international level she contributed as speaker, co-organiser to public consultations on Sustainable Development, Beijing+25 etc. Science 2020 Valentina Bodrug-Lungu is a OP Women’s Major Group UNECE Region. Co-author of CEDAW Shadow reports in 2006, 2013, 2020.  Co-author of Shadow report on VNR Republic of Moldova (2020).  

Zeina Abla is a researcher and consultant based in Beirut and working on development studies in Lebanon and the Arab countries. Her research focuses on the global development agendas; gender; the socio-political dynamics of economic policies; and conflict sensitivity analyses related to managing the commons and environment. She currently consults for national and international organizations and contributed to several UN publications, specifically on the Sustainable Development Goals. She is a founding member of the Ebla Research Collective; a research entity that facilitates people’s reflection on their own society and discerning the emerging vision of an alternative future. She previously worked in economic research in the banking sector. Zeina has a Master in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.