Aisha Ijaz

Aisha Ijaz has been working at Aahung since 2008, and is currently the Senior Program Manager where she oversees the entire team in the development and management of all programs and projects. She has a B.A. in English Literature from Tufts University, and a MSc. in Social Policy and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Aisha has over thirteen years experience in NGO programming on intimate partner violence in the USA, and SRHR in Pakistan. Her areas of interest and expertise include developing and managing SRHR programs for young people, and closely advocating with the various provincial Education Departments in Pakistan for the integration of CSE in their education curricula.

Aminata Wurie

Aminata has been a strong advocate for gender mainstreaming in policies and programming since 2014, when she returned to Sierra Leone to join the frontline of the Ebola response. She worked for the largest Social Mobilization Action Consortium in the region, developing various community behavioural change campaigns. She co-founded the Survivor Dream Project focused on providing support (psycho-social, entrepreneurial and educational) to female Ebola survivors and conducting empirical research on sustainable community recovery efforts targeting women and youth. Before that, she worked with various organizations in Canada using the arts and innovative approaches to engage youth on gender, sexuality education and HIV/AIDS issues.

Anna-Kay Magnus Watson

Anna-Kay Magnus Watson is the National Coordinator for Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) and HIV/AIDS in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Jamaica. During her 7 year tenure she has coordinated the development of the life-skills based HFLE curricula for both primary and secondary school  levels. She has conducted numerous trainings of teachers in life skills education and has led the development of training resources to support classroom delivery. Mrs. Magnus Watson holds a Bachelor of Science Degree and a Master’s Degree in Public Health, specializing in Health Promotion from Florida International University.

Monica Geingos

Monica Geingos founded the #BeFree in 2016 as a youth-driven programme facilitating a non-judgemental platform for adolescents and young adults to engage on challenges they face.  The movement also integrates access to information and services. As the UNAIDS Special Advocate for Young Women and Adolescent Girls she champions the Start Free, Stay Free, AIDS Free Agenda. The First Lady works to capacitate community-based grassroots to lead the fight against HIV in their communities. In acknowledgement of her efforts, Madame Geingos was awarded the 2018 World without AIDS Award.

Joanna Herat

Joanna Herat is a Senior Programme Specialist on Health and Education at UNESCO (Paris), providing technical leadership and policy support for education sector responses to improve health and well-being. Her areas of technical leadership are HIV prevention, comprehensive sexuality education, school-related gender-based violence, early and unintended pregnancy and gender equality. Before joining UNESCO, Joanna worked with civil society at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance supporting community-based HIV interventions in Africa and Asia. She started her career teaching and managing theatre for HIV education in Tanzania and Cameroon. Joanna has a Master’s degree in Anthropology of Development from the University of London.

Memory Zonde-Kachambwa

Memory Zonde-Kachambwa is a pan-African feminist and social-justice activist. She is a recognized cross-cultural thought leader in movement-building and feminist organizing in policy, advocacy, and networking. She has over 18 years of experience developing, managing, and implementing programs promoting women and girls rights regionally and globally. Memory has extensive front-line experience implementing campaigns/policy advocacy initiatives advancing human rights, gender equality, economic justice, sexual-rights and bodily autonomy, transformational leadership, ending-violence-against women and girls and  sustainable development. She passionately dismantles and disrupts patriarchy, neo-liberal systems and structures that oppress and deny women dignity.

Shruti Arora

Shruti has been working on issues of Gender and Sexuality with a feminist understanding since 2011. She has been part of various campaigns, and activist and advocacy forums aimed at understanding, engaging with and speaking out against issues like street sexual harassment, moral policing, control over women and trans people's mobility in public spaces, and legal reforms on sexual violence (post-2012 rape case in Delhi).

Fionna Smyth

Fionna Smyth oversees Oxfam’s humanitarian campaigning to ensure the rights of those affected by crisis. She has worked in development and human rights for 15 years for Oxfam, Amnesty and the UN.

Mbathio Diaw

Marisa Viana

Marisa Viana is currently the Executive Coordinator of RESURJ (Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice Alliance), a transnational feminist alliance of activists working towards the fulfillment sexual and reproductive right and health for all. Marisa’s commitment and dedication to social justice, gender equality and human rights is deeply rooted in her experiences growing up in a resource-poor area of the Brazilian Amazon where discrimination and violence against girls and women continues to be the norm. Marisa’s experience spans policy advocacy, program development and evaluation, implementation of youth-friendly health services, grant making, and young feminist organizing. She has led the Association for Women’s Rights and Development (AWID)’s Young Feminist Program; worked at the Foundation for Tropical Medicine in the Brazilian Amazon implementing youth friendly health services program for adolescents living with HIV/AIDS, and she also served as Latin America Program Associate for the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC). She is a member of the BRICS Feminist Watch, the Vecinas Feministas for sexual and reproductive justice in Latin America, and an advisor to Mama Cash. Marisa has a Master in Public Health from Columbia University.

Aklima Jesmin

Aklima Jesmin is a human rights professional with more than 10 years in diverse work experiences that directly connects to the well-being of women and girls. However, she loves to introduce herself as a life-time advocate for adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (ASRHR). One of her recent achievements has been to contribute in the formation of the ASRHiE Task Force in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, along with many other ASRH initiatives to improve the SRHR status for Rohingya adolescents girls. She is a firm believer that adolescent responsive SRHR programs are not negotiable in any circumstances.

Amani Kanjo

Amani works as Gender-Based Violence Program Manager for Syria Relief and Development, that serves affected women and girls in Syria crisis. She co-leads the Youth and Adolescence Taskforce and is a member of Adolescence Reproductive Health Working Group in Northern Syria. Amani is leading the Young Mother’s Clubs initiative in collaboration with CARE and UNFPA to meet the needs of pregnant adolescents and first time mothers. She contributed to the development of the UNFPA Whole of Syria Adolescence Strategy and GBV Standard operation procedures for Syria in 2018-2019. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Bioengineering from Aleppo University and a Master's in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Gaziantep University, Turkey, after she was chased by the Syrian Government as an opposition-activist.

Ibrahim Balami

Ibrahim Balami is a young professional who was born in Maiduguri, Nigeria. He joined the IRC Nigeria in 2017 as the Comprehensive Women Centre (CWC) Integration Officer, where he successfully coordinated integration of reproductive health (RH), gender-based violence and empowerment services. A year later, he became the Senior RH Officer, and is committed to removing facility- and community-level barriers to adolescent sexual and reproduction health (ASRH), increasing adolescent and community meaningful participation in project design and implementation, and supporting quality SRH for displaced adolescents in crisis-affected northeast Nigeria. He is also a gender equality champion, passionate about advancing positive behavior change towards ASRH in Nigeria.

Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli

Dr. Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli works on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) in the World Health Organization’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research (which includes the UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Human Reproductive Programme). His work includes building the evidence base on ASRH, and supporting countries to translate this evidence into action through well-conceived and well-managed policies and programs. His experience in generating knowledge and taking knowledge to action is global in scope and spans over 30 years. Drawing upon these experiences, he has presented in scores of global, regional and national conferences, and authored/co-authored books, book chapters, newsletter articles, blog pieces and over 85 peer-reviewed journal articles: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Venkatraman_Chandra-Mouli/contributions

Julianne Deitch

Julianne Deitch has more than a decade of experience working in global health with international, regional, and community-based organizations. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, where her research focuses on understanding adolescent demand for contraception in humanitarian settings. With the Women’s Refugee Commission, Julianne is leading a project aimed at expanding access to sexual and reproductive health services for adolescent girls in Iraq, Lebanon and Bangladesh. She is committed to designing evidence-based interventions that actively involve adolescents in program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Khadijah Moore

Khadijah Moore is on a mission to help create sustainable change. Trained as an sexual and reproductive health and rights educator, this catalyst for change has a unique nine-year background in advocacy, volunteerism and communications. A Commonwealth of Dominica native, she has served as President of the Youth Advocacy Movement, youth representative, and Board Director of the Dominica Planned Parenthood Association and the Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation. In 2016, Khadijah co-founded the Lévé Domnik Campaign, which is now a full-fledged organization launched to support survivors of gender-based violence. Khadijah is currently pursuing studies in Political Science and Women & Gender Studies in the United States.

Zeinab Cherri

Zeinab Cherri is a Women Deliver Young Leader and a member of WD Humanitarian Committee. She studied a Master's in Public Health in Disasters at Universidad de Oviedo and Université Catholique de Louvain. Zeinab overlooked mixed-method studies advocating for migrant and refugee women's right in Lebanon. As a Research Assistant at the American University of Beirut, she was responsible for developing the research methods and analyzing qualitative data that will help decrease adolescent girls’ school dropout rate in Tripoli, Lebanon. As an advocate, Zeinab published a study on early marriage and barriers to contraception among Syrian refugee women in Lebanon.

Mogesi Betty Samburu

Ms. Mogesi Betty Samburu is an Assistant Director Nutrition and Dietetics Services working for the Ministry of Health Kenya currently deputizing the head of nutrition and coordinating research in nutrition programme. Previously held the position of National Programme Manager for Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) since 2013 to June 2017 at the Ministry of Health Headquarters. Ms. Samburu is a Nutrition and Dietetics specialist specifically with specialization in Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) and she is passionate about changing lives of vulnerable populations especially women and children through influencing policy and practice using research evidence.

Muhammad Zahidullah

Mohammed Zahidullah is the Head of Sustainability at DBL Group – one of the largest apparels and textiles organization in Bangladesh. In this role, Zahid has been working to promote social and environmental responsibility for the textile industry of Bangladesh. Through a wide range of programs aimed at the improvement of the lives of workers and the local communities and reducing the impact on the environment; Zahid regularly works with a broad range of stakeholders, including UN agencies. He is currently managing several sustainability programs, including the Partnership for Cleaner Textiles (PaCT) by IFC, Mothers@Work and Children’s Right & Business Principle of UNICEF and Future Leaders Development Program (FLDP). Sustainability programs at DBL are aligned with SDGs.

Bianca Stumbitz

Dr. Bianca Stumbitz has specialist knowledge on the subject of maternity workplace policies and practices across the world, and has recently undertaken related research in South Africa, Ghana and Malaysia. She has particular experience in exploring breastfeeding support and other maternity protection issues at work within their specific policy and cultural context, with a focus on low paid and vulnerable workers, and in examining the feasibility of innovative workplace maternity supports at low cost.

Alison Stuebe

Dr. Stuebe completed her Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She completed fellowship training in Maternal Fetal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s, and she earned a Masters in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. She has published more than 140 peer-reviewed articles. She is currently an Associate Professor and Board-Certified Maternal-Fetal Medicine subspecialist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and Distinguished Scholar of Infant and Young Child Feeding at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is Medical Director of Lactation Services at UNC Health Care, and she works with an interdisciplinary team of faculty and staff to enable women to achieve their infant feeding goals. Her current research focuses on developing models for holistic and equitable care of families during the 4th Trimester.

Gary Barker

Gary Barker, PhD, is a leading global voice in engaging men and boys in advancing gender equality and positive masculinities. He is the CEO and founder of Promundo, which has worked over 20 years in more than 40 countries. Beginning in low-income areas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Promundo’s approaches have been incorporated into ministries of health and education around the world. Promundo is a Global Consortium with members in Brazil, the US, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Portugal. Gary is co-founder of MenCare, a global campaign working in 45 countries to promote men’s involvement as caregivers, and co-founder of MenEngage, a global alliance of more than 700 NGOs. He co-created and leads the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), the largest-ever survey of men’s attitudes and behaviors related to violence, fatherhood, and gender equality. He is a co-author of the 2015 and 2017 State of the World's Fathers reports. He has advised the UN, the World Bank, numerous national governments, and key international foundations and corporations on strategies to engage men and boys in promoting gender equality. In 2017 he was named by Apolitical as one of the 20 most influential people in gender policy around the world. He is an Ashoka Fellow and received the Voices of Solidarity Award from Vital Voices for his work to engage men for gender equality. Gary holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology.

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau is an engaged advocate for gender equality and a mother of three young children. Over the past 15 years, she has been involved with a variety of causes as a speaker and mentor, including causes for teenage self-esteem, women and girls’ rights and freedoms, eating disorders and mental health.

In 2013, Sophie received the UN Women National Committee Canada Recognition Award for her contribution to human rights. She received the 2018 Humanitarians Award from the United Nations Association of New York.

As part of her advocacy, she works as an official spokesperson for Plan Canada’s “Because I am a Girl” initiative and the FitSpirit Foundation. She was named influencer for the Deliver for Good campaign of Women Deliver. Sophie is always looking to deepen the conversation around mental and physical well-being and is now the National ambassador and ally to We Well-being to bring awareness on mental health.

As a mother, Sophie’s outdoorsy and energetic personality translates into regular active family time in nature and practicing a multitude of sports. She was honoured as the 100th member of Nature Canada’s Women for Nature initiative for her support of nature and the outdoors and continues to be committed to sharing her passion for nature with Canadians as Honourary Guide for Families for Parks Canada.

Fully bilingual, Sophie studied Commerce at McGill University, and finished her B.A. in Communications at the Université de Montréal. She completed another degree at the École de radio et de télévision Promédia in Montreal. After her studies, she worked in sales and advertising before becoming a television and radio reporter.

Her intrinsic curiosity and her willingness to explore spirituality motivated Sophie to study hatha yoga and attain her certification. She has also completed her “Radiant Child” kundalini yoga teacher training, a practice specifically for children, and has taught classes on a volunteer basis at a public school close to her home.

Maria Toorpakai Wazir

Maria Toorpakai Wazir hails from South Waziristan, along the Pakistan Afghanistan border. This area is known as the most dangerous place on earth and the birthplace of the Taliban. Due to the centuries old ultra-conservative norms, girls/women have been suffering from the worst of human rights’ conditions. Girls here are bought & sold into marriages at young ages & have no right to decide for their lives but despite these disadvantages, Maria became Pakistan’s top female squash player and turned professional in 2006. She started her journey of rebellion for equal rights at age 4 ⅕ by burning her girly clothes/dresses and cut her hair. She is trailblazer in her native Pakistan, she fought against gender barricades inflicted on her by the so called Islamic & cultural beliefs and posed as a boy using the name Genghis Khan to compete in sports in her younger days. Due to her audacious and outspoken nature, She got death threats from the Taliban in 2007 & so she locked herself in her house for 3 years. She continued to train in her bedroom while sending out thousands of emails around the world to sports academies in order to train & compete with peace of mind. She escaped her country in 2011 to Canada. Her passion for Sports and her quest for Equality & liberty continued. Athletic competition gave Maria her platform to learn about the world and channel her abundant energy in a positive direction, and she hopes to inspire young women to seek empowerment through athletic competition, particularly in conservative cultures through community engagement and mentorship. Coming from violent & war affected area, she truly believes in the power of Sports to combat negativity, extremism and violence. She uses sport as the medium for change.

Regina Honu

Regina is the CEO of Soronko Solutions. She just opened the first coding and human centered design school for children and adults called Soronko Academy. She was just awarded the 2018 AFS Active Global Citizen Award​ for her contributions to global competence education.

She recently spoke at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and on closing the gender gap in computer science. She also spoke at Brookings Institute in Washington DC on Advancing Female entrepreneurship in Africa. She is an ambassador and mentor for thecamp, first European campus dedicated to emerging technology and social innovation. She is listed as one of BBC 100 most inspirational and innovative women for 2017. She was also recently interviewed by Bishop TD Jakes. She was awarded the 2017 Northwestern University Buffet Institute for Emerging Global Leaders Award and awarded by Coca Cola in the Coca Cola young achievers award as one of the big six and a leader in technology. She was also unveiled as the 2016 Vlisco Brand Ambassador. She won Startup Entrepreneur of the year and Soronko Solutions won Social Start-up of the year for 2016 at the Ghana Startup Awards. She was featured on CNN as one the 12 inspirational women who rock STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). She was named as one of the six women making an impact in Tech in Africa and one of 10 female entrepreneurs to watch in emerging economies. She was awarded Young Entrepreneur of the year by the GPA Awards from Africa 2.0 and JCI Ghana Outstanding Young Person award for scientific and technological advancement. Soronko Solutions was nominated for the editor’s choice award in the Women in IT award in the UK. She was featured on CNN African Voices,CNN African Startups and interviewed by BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle and Aljazeera. She is an Ashoka Fellow, Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow, GOOD Fellow, Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum, Vital Voices Fellow and a Change Leader with Tigo Reach For Change. She belongs to Africa Leadership Initiative West Africa.

Elhadj As Sy

Elhadj As Sy is the Secretary General of the IFRC. He began this leadership role on 1 August, 2014 and is based at the IFRC secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland.

Mr. Sy has extensive experience in leadership roles in the humanitarian sector, having previously served at a senior level with UNICEF, UNAIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and other agencies for more than 25 years.

Before joining the IFRC ‐ the world’s largest humanitarian network ‐ Mr. Sy was UNICEF’s Director of Partnerships and Resource Development in New York. He has also served as UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa and Global Emergency Coordinator for the Horn of Africa.

From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Sy was Director, HIV/AIDS Practice with the United Nations Development Programme in New York. Before that, he worked with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as its Africa Regional Director and later as Director of Operational Partnerships and Country Support in Geneva. Mr. Sy has also held the position of UNAIDS Representative in New York and Director of the New York Liaison Office. From 1988 to 1997, he served as Director of Health and Development Programmes with Environment and Development Action in the Third World in Dakar, Senegal.

Mr. Sy holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and Human Sciences from the University of Dakar. He then pursued Master’s studies in Arts and Germanistik at the University of Graz, and graduated from the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna. He was also awarded a post graduate diploma in Education from the Ecole normale superieure in Dakar. He speaks English, French and German and is a national of Senegal.

Wendy Grant-John

Wendy Grant-John is a Senior Aboriginal Advisor at Deloitte. She grew up with cultural values and teachings instilled by her family and surrounding families. Wendy is a member of Musqueam Chief and Council and has spent most of her adult life working for her community as well as representing First Nations across this country in many different forums. Wendy is a recipient of the Order of BC and has two Honourary Doctorates of Law.

Mrs. Grant-John served three terms as Chief of the Musqueam and was the first woman elected Regional Chief to the Assembly of First Nations. As Musqueam Chief, she helped to negotiate one of the first Aboriginal commercial fisheries in Canada. She has previously worked at Indian and Northern Affairs Canada as Associate Regional Director General of British Columbia and has served as a lay bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia and as a Board Member with Canada Lands Company Limited. She has also served as a Commissioner on the Pacific Salmon Commission. She was a founding member and director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and a founder of the Musqueam Weavers. Most recently, Mrs. Grant-John was the official Representative for the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada on the issue of Matrimonial Real Property on Reserve.

Grant-John’s weaving group proved to have a significant impact on her own life. “Those women encouraged me to run politically, and when I was 38 years old, I was first elected chief. Things just grew from there.”

Martín Aguirre

Martín is a journalist and a lawyer, working with the biggest newspaper in Uruguay, El País, where he leads a newsroom of more than 100 professionals. He also commands the digital strategy of the newspaper, and writes a very popular column every Sunday analyzing local politics. Some of his articles of covering different issues, from soccer to international politics, have been published in newspapers such as The Guardian, El Tiempo, from Colombia, or El Mercurio, of Chile. He is also a college professor, where he teaches legal regulation of media and communications, and has been involved in the recent process of modification of the law that regulates media companies. He has studied Spanish literature, Latin American studies, and recently published his first book, “The progressive wave”, about the series of left wing governments that have re shaped South American politics during the last decade. And during 2017-2018 he was a Humphrey Fellow, a program supervised by the State Department of the United States.