sivananthi thanenthiran | siva
Siva is currently the Executive Director of ARROW. Before joining ARROW, she explored different career choices in her life, which included teaching at a university, running a magazine across three countries and working for the United Nations. These different opportunities helped her discover her passion for writing and learning and form her ideals of working in partnerships and respecting diversity.
She has co-written and edited books on sustainable development and urbanization as part of her work with the Urban Governance Initiative (TUGI), a regional project of UNDP. She was also a committee member of the Women’s Candidacy Initiative (WCI), which ran candidates on a women’s rights issues platform.
Siva co-authored ARROW’s ICPD+15 and ICPD+20 Asia-Pacific monitoring reports and has written numerous articles and presented papers on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. She has been able to expand the work of ARROW to examine more closely the inter-linkages of sexual and reproductive health and rights with critical development issues such as poverty, food security, climate change and migration. Under Siva’s leadership, the organization’s working partnerships have expanded to 17 countries in the region as well as regional and global networks and organisations.
She occasionally writes for local newspapers on issues that she thinks are of crucial importance in her country and views this as her contribution to the society in which she lives.
sai jyothirmai racherla | sai
Sai Jyothirmai Racherla (Sai) comes with training in Nutrition and Population Sciences, and 18 years of experience working on issues of right to health, maternal health and rights, gender, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). She is an activist, a trainer, a researcher and advocate of women’s rights.
At ARROW, she has been involved in the advocacy and monitoring of the Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development, ICPD Programme of Action, and successfully coordinated the Global South monitoring of the 20 years of implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action in five regions of Asia and the Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, Middle East and Northern Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa in 2013. This monitoring and advocacy initiative was carried out in 49 countries across the Global South using a right based SRHR indicator framework. She has been active in Post-2015 processes leading up to the Agenda 2030 at the UN, and has been selected for all the Inter-Agency Expert Group Meetings on SDG indicators thus far on behalf of civil society.
She has co-authored the reclaiming and redefining rights – ICPD+15 Status of Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Asia, and coordinated the related series of publications on reproductive autonomy, maternal mortality and morbidity, sexuality and rights, poverty food security SRHR, analysing SRHR under CEDAW and pathways to universal access to reproductive health in Asia.
Her other area of work currently focuses on young people SRHR accountability, monitoring and advocacy.
menka goundan
emily yip
Emily is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). She has more than 20 years experience in HR, tax, finance and accounting, having worked with various companies including telecommunications, IT system integration and interior design constructions listed on SGX. She loves travelling for holidays and appreciates food, with cooking being her passion.
anjali shenoi
Anjali (she/her) is an intersectional feminist with over 10 years of experience in research and policy advocacy in the areas of reproductive justice, public health and human rights in India. Over the years, she has actively engaged in social justice campaigns and peoples’ movements to advocate for policy and systems’ change on a range of issues in this space. She has also conceptualised and developed programmes and content for young people in India on CSE, gender, sexuality and life skills, media and digital literacy and health rights. Equipped with a Master’s degree in International Development from University of Bath, UK, she has a keen interest in evidence generation for advocacy, programme management, and cross-movement collaborations.
smruti sudha behera
Smruti is a post graduate in Development Studies with close to nine years of engagement with the development space. She has been deeply engaged in gender justice at the grassroots working with women and girls from Dalit, tribal and excluded communities during her time in PRADAN, India. She has also spent time in a public health organization, Public Health Resource Network drawing intersections of health, gender and rights and working on a health inequity research with particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs). In her previous few years with CREA, Smruti had been deeply focused in intersectional feminism while working with structurally excluded communities like young people, persons with disabilities and sexual and gender diverse people on issues of sexuality, gender, human rights, SRHR and feminist leadership. Smruti believes in bringing intersectional feminism lenses to all the work that she does. She is passionate about implementing complex programs and creating spaces for cross movement collaborations.
Aliza Singh
Aliza Singh is a Senior Programme Officer at ARROW, currently based in Nepal. She has a degree in Masters in Public Health and more than 9 years of experience in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). She has worked closely with the Government of Nepal along with different UN organizations such as UNFPA and WHO for health system strengthening.
Aliza also has the experience of working with NGOs in advocating the access to SRHR . She has led and co-authored many qualitative as well as quantitative researches and has a good experience of work in evidence generation. Aliza has also shown her leadership skill as board member in a women-led organization in Nepal.
Hasini Rupasinghe
Hasini is a legal practitioner in Sri Lanka working on areas including fundamental rights and public interest litigation. She is a passionate advocate of SRHR including safe abortion rights and reformation of law and policies on the same. She is also a trainer at YANSL and represents ARROW in the YANAA Committee.
Ranjeeta Silwal
Ranjeeta Silwal (she/her) is a human rights lawyer with 10 years of experience.
Based in Kathmandu, she has worked with national and international organizations, where she has passionately spearheaded program implementation, coordinated with diverse stakeholders, and represented victims of human rights violations in pivotal forums. Her extensive engagement spans Women’s rights, Peace and Security, and Gender Justice, reflecting her unwavering commitment to societal equity.
Ranjeeta holds an LL.M. from the Kathmandu School of law, grounding her expertise in legal frameworks and advocacy. A staunch feminist, she champions gender equality with fervor, infusing her professional endeavors with principles of inclusivity and empowerment. Her multifaceted persona epitomizes resilience, compassion, and a steadfast dedication to creating a more just and equitable world.
In her spare time, Ranjeeta likes to enjoy the company of her houseplants, a nice fiction and masala tea.
Sajja Singh
Sajja Singh is a public health professional with over six years of experience in grassroots youth-led and women’s organizations focusing on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Gender Equality in Nepal.
Sajja holds an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree in Public Health from University College Dublin, Ireland and Jagiellonian University, Poland specialising in “Governance in Health Systems Transition”. Sajja is deeply passionate about health equity and universal health coverage and aims to work for equitable and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights of all individuals.
Previously, Sajja has advocated for young people’s SRHR at national and regional levels. She has represented young people’s voices at the Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD), the Asia Pacific Population Conference (APPC), and the Nairobi Summit ICPD+25. Sajja is an avid learner, loves to stay active, travel, and hike and has a passion for photography.
shiwa karmacharya
Shiwa is a Political Science Graduate currently working at ARROW as a Programme Officer for the domain ‘Community Mobilisation for SRR Accountability’. She has 6+ years of experience in working on issues of gender, sexuality, freedom of expression, and feminist politics of the internet. Skilled in qualitative methodology, she likes research, reading and writing. She has led as well as co-authored multiple national as well as regional researches on different issues. Her areas of interest are International Relations, South Asian Politics, Gender, Sexuality, Human Rights, and Technology. At ARROW, she engages mostly with the national, regional and global RHRN consortium members to incrementally improve the regional and global norms and standards around SRHR especially focusing on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE).
Safiya Riyaz
Safiya Riyaz is an early career researcher and development professional from Sri Lanka, with five years of experience in the field of Gender Equality and Women’s Health and Rights. She is focused on developing culturally relevant and economically viable services and programs, particularly in the context of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).
She is a Commonwealth Scholar and holds a Master’s degree in Global Health from Edinburgh, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Gender and Women’s Studies from Colombo and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She draws on her academic and professional experience to explore the intersections of gender and global health for improved intervention development and expanded access to care for underserved communities, particularly in Global South countries. She has previously served as the Senior Manager at the Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka.
Sharmilah Rajendran
Sharmilah, a Psychology graduate, is a dedicated advocate for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), with a focus on young people and Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE). She has actively led CSE training, worked alongside diverse stakeholders, and contributed to key publications addressing SRHR issues. Sharmilah’s experience extends to offering policy recommendations to promote inclusivity and representing youth perspectives at national and international platforms, including the ICPD30. Her commitment lies in empowering youth, promoting gender equality, and enhancing access to reproductive healthcare for people in all their diversities.
Nica Castillo
Nica Castillo is a Senior Programme Officer at ARROW. She is an intersectional feminist who wears many hats. She has worked with civil society organizations and movements across the Global South on issues of climate justice and food sovereignty. She facilitates the integration of southern feminist analysis in these areas.
shamala chandrasekaran
Shamala Chandrasekaran has over 8 years of hands-on experience in strategic planning, development, implementation and management of programmes, with particular focus on HIV, harm reduction, key populations, community capacity building, proposal writing and donor reporting at the local and national levels. Prior to joining ARROW, Shamala served as the National Programme Manager at a national NGO and was instrumental for the outcomes of support areas which includes technical and management support to partner organizations, monitoring systems, performance management of partner organizations and capacity building. Her professional experience also include contributing to the design and implementation of innovative community based prevention programmes with the Ministry of Health Malaysia for people who inject drugs, sex workers, MSM, and transgender people. Shamala has co-authored several publications with the HIV sector within the Ministry of Health Malaysia.
riju dhakal
Riju Dhakal, is currently based in Kathmandu, Nepal and is a graduate of Public Health from the Central Department of Public Health, Institute of Medicine, Nepal. She has been actively engaging herself around public health issues and her passion especially lies in the area of adolescent and young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. She has been an active youth activist for the past four years in Nepal and has also represented the issues and young people in the regional and international platforms. She is passionate about the use of Comprehensive Sexuality Education as a tool to promote the rights of young people, gender equality and establish better health conditions for them and her experience on advocacy stems from her leadership at YUWA, a youth-led organisation in Nepal. She loves travelling, grooving, doodling and hiking.
Anuj Bhandari
Anuj Bhandari is a public health graduate based in Kathmandu, Nepal, currently working as the Programme Officer for Communications at ARROW. Over the last seven years, Anuj has been engaged in various capacities within SRHR, public health, technology, and content creation. He strongly believes in feminism and equality.
Prior to joining ARROW, Anuj worked as a project lead for SRHR-based projects in Nepal that also focused on digital advocacy. Anuj has also led a youth-based coalition comprised of youth-led organisations working to improve the SRHR and empower young people, especially adolescents and young girls, in Nepal. He was one of the Board Members of an organisation that works to support women, children, and girls in reaching their full potential in life by improving their overall health and nutritional status.
In his free time, Anuj is interested in football and music.
Sanskriti Shrestha
Sanskriti Shrestha is a Programme Officer (PMEL) at ARROW and currently based in Nepal. She graduated with a degree in Master’s in Public Health with a specialization in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) from Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Netherlands. She is an SRHR advocate with more than seven years of experience in designing SRHR advocacy program for diverse young people, project/partnership management, capacity building and leading the PMEL of coalitions working for SRHR and gender justice. She has been contributing to Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in schools through capacity strengthening of youth activists, delivering workshops on gender and sexuality for young people and international and regional advocacy spaces, developing program proposals, research reports and knowledge products in SRHR. She loves karaoke and trekking to high-altitude lakes.
wong chooi fong
Chooi Fong has years of experience working in various companies in the fields of Housing Development, Hospitality, Interior Design Constructions and Management. She graduated from Wawasan Open University (WOU). Apart from work, she loves travelling and reading.
azmilia kamil | mia
Azmilia ‘Mia’ Kamil graduated from University Technology Mara (UiTM) and majored in finance. She just celebrated her 10th anniversary as an Accountant. She has working experience from various industries such as advertising, property and manufacturing where she has been involved with all types of financial reporting exercises, striving to meet due dates. In other words, she has an eye for due dates. Apart from work, she loves reading, outdoors activities and travelling. Before joining ARROW, Mia participated in a project under UNICEF and currently in her spare time, she volunteers in a project associated with RJK – “Rumah Jalinan Kasih”, which aids underprivileged children.
Lee Yan Ping
Lee Yan Ping is a finance officer for ARROW. She graduated from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) in 2017 with a Bachelor’s degree in global economics. She loves to travel as she feels that traveling is another form of investing in yourself. Yan Ping believes that sharing and caring makes the world a better place.
rosnani hitam | nani
Nani has over 20 years of experience working with a non-governmental organisation, collaborating with multicultural teams and individuals from diverse backgrounds. She is responsible for managing the human resources functions and operations of ARROW. Nani holds a Bachelor’s degree of Mass Communication, specializing in Public Relations from University Technology Mara (UiTM), and is a Certified Human Resources Officer from the Malaysian Institute Of Human Resource Management (MIHRM). Additionally, she is a member of the MIHRM.
Atira Yunus
Atira Yunus is an easygoing person who is very passionate for the field of Human Resources (HR). She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resource Management and an Advanced Certificate in Youth Development. As a highly motivated and enthusiastic graduate, she has a good knowledge and understanding of people management. She believes that we need to be kind to the world, and that every problem we face has a solution.
rashidah abdullah
Rashidah is a keen policy-oriented researcher, writer and activist. She has led the conceptualisation, coordination and report writing of a number of national, regional and international research and evaluation projects aimed at programme and policy change to benefit women. Rashidah has been a founder of a number of innovative NGOs, including the Women’s Centre Action Group in Western Australia, Women’s Aid Organisation for battered women, Sisters in Islam, ARROW, the Global Forum for Health Research (Geneva) and the Reproductive Rights Advocacy Alliance Malaysia (RRAAM).
Rashidah has been a consultant and a technical advisor for a number of international organisations, including UNESCO, UNFPA, IPPF, and WHO, as well as the Malaysian government and a number of women’s NGOs. Besides research and advocacy, she also has enjoyed writing and editing many publications on violence against women, gender and development, sexual and reproductive health, population policy, monitoring and advocacy, men’s responsibility, women’s health and rights, and Islam and women’s rights.
Rashidah is currently active in a number of capacities RRAAM, the Malaysian Aids Council, Sisters in Islam, and the Women’s Aid Organization (WAO). She now works as an activist and independent consultant in the areas of women’s health and sexual and reproductive health and rights, women’s rights and NGO organisational development.
rita raj (1944-2006)
Rita Raj founded ARROW in 1993 with Rashidah Abdullah and remained a director until 1996. Before ARROW, Rita worked for 10 years with the Malaysian Federation of Family Planning Associations.
Rita joined the Asian and Pacific Development Centre (APDC) in 1988 and teamed up with Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) to coordinate WAO’s path breaking national domestic violence research, which helped influence legislation in Malaysia. She was a co-coordinator for the seven-country feminist research study of the International Research on Reproductive Rights and Action Group (IRRRAG) project and also supported International Women’s Rights Action Watch (IWRAW) Asia Pacific.
Rita went on to study traditional Chinese medicine at the New England School of Acupuncture in Massachusetts, United States and became a licensed acupuncturist, fulfilling a life-long dream to become a healer. She continued her work in women’s health through her involvement with the Boston Women’s Health Collective, UNFPA and Rutgers University Center for Global Women’s Leadership. Throughout her life, Rita inspired many with her deep commitment to the inequities and injustices many women face, which she translated into action to improve women’s health and rights around the world. She passed away on 23 November 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts and is dearly missed.
Sohini Bhattacharya
Sohini has worked in the development sector for 30+ years with a focus on women and empowerment. She has been closely connected to the Women’s Movement in India and co-founded Sanhita Gender Resource Centre — the first of its kind in Eastern India in 1996. Before Breakthrough, she worked with Ashoka Innovators for the Public for 10 years to bring in more women entrepreneurs to the fellowship and on institution building for the organisation in South Asia. She also worked as the India strategy advisor for the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network from 2010-2013. Sohini is a founding member of the Coalition for Good Schools – Voices from the South, a collection of leading practitioners and influencers committed to delivering access to a safe learning environment for children across the Global South.
Currently Sohini is the CEO of Breakthrough, an organisation focused on transforming gender norms and building the leadership of young people to prevent gender-based violence. Sohini became Breakthrough’s second President and CEO in July 2017 and helmed the global organisation through a founder transition for the first 3 years. Sohini has worked with Breakthrough since 2010 and has developed an impressive portfolio of support for Breakthrough’s programs and has managed the wide range of partnerships across the globe.
Sohini is a board member of Kolkata Sanved, which uses dance movement for recovery from trauma and violence. She is also a trustee of Read India, an organisation that sets up self-sustaining community libraries across the country. Sohini has a master’s in English literature and a passion for crime fiction, cooking, handicrafts, and travel.
Dr. Yasmeen Sabeeh Qazi
Dr. Yasmeen Qazi is a Medical Doctor with a vast experience in public health field. She has received management trainings from New York, Australia and Germany. She is a well-known Reproductive Health Expert in the country and has remained an active Advocate for women’s health issues through her association with civil societies for more than 30 years. She has served as an Expert on Task Forces of various policies and programs and work closely with Donors and NGOs on Reproductive Health matters, in country and internationally. She was associated with Packard Foundation from 2003 to 20019 as their Senior Country Advisor. She received special Award from Sindh Government on account of “extraordinary work for social development” (2004). She was invited to deliver a speech in British Parliament on “Status of Maternal Health in Pakistan”, (2004). A noted achievement is Prime Minister Performance Award to Packard Foundation under her leadership (2009). Some other achievements include; Recipient of Ladies Fund Women Award for her groundbreaking work, by Dawood Global Foundation (2013); invitation as an Expert Speaker by Dutch Government to talk on “Islam and Family Planning” (Hague, May 2014); Part of Government Delegation to UN by Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2012 & 2014) ; Chosen as one of the 50 Women Leaders in country by British Council in WoW – Women of World initiative; Invited as Speaker in Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington DC to speak on Pakistan Population Issues; chosen as top 15 women leaders in Health by Punjab Government; invited in Population Task Forces by Governments of Punjab and Sindh, which are chaired by Chief Ministers. She is a Board Member of PPIF- Punjab Population Innovation Fund, established by Government of Punjab. She has recently been honored to be listed in top 100 Women Leaders in Global Health in Pakistan. She has been associated with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation since 2015, first as Senior Technical Advisor and then as Senior Advocacy Advisor on Family Planning. Recently, she has been promoted as Senior Country Advisor on FP/MNCH to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
tham hui ying
Hui Ying is a human rights practitioner with over 9 years of experience in legal and rights-based advocacy. She is currently the Executive Director of Asylum Access Malaysia, a Malaysian refugee rights organisation that aims towards making human rights a reality for refugees in Malaysia through a combination of policy advocacy, legal services and community legal empowerment. As Executive Director, she oversees the organisational pursuit of impact and is directly responsible for promoting systemic change through advocacy to ensure all refugees in Malaysia are able to live safely, move freely, work fairly and rebuild their lives. Prior to joining Asylum Access Malaysia, Hui Ying was a practicing litigator where she worked on issues affecting gender equality and child rights. She previously served as President of the Association of Women Lawyers, Malaysia and is the former Deputy Chair of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights (APPRN) Southeast Asia Working Group. Hui Ying has a Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B) from the University of Reading and a Master’s in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science, which she received as a Chevening Scholar. She has been admitted to the Bar of England and Wales, and the Malaysian Bar.
virisila buadromo
Virisila Buadromo is a Pacific feminist and political activist who co-leads the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights Asia and the Pacific – the first rapid response grant maker for women and non binary human rights defenders for the regions. Prior to joining UAF A&P – Virisila was at the helm of the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement for 14 years. Virisila has a background in media and communications. She was given the ‘International Women of Courage’ award in 2008 by the US Government and the inaugural ‘Courage Award’ by ‘Women have Wings’ (established in memory of Amelia Earhart) in 2012. Virisila plays a leading representational role at national, regional and international levels.
suriani kempe
Suri is a Co-founder of Kemban Kolektif, that provides consulting services linked to the entire project life-cycle using feminist and inter-sectional lens, particularly in the areas of gender, human rights and its intersections-sexual and reproductive health rights. Prior to that, Suri held the portfolio for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment for the United Nations Development Programme in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. She was responsible for the development and implementation of gender thematic programmes and integrating a gender perspective into the design and implementation of UNDP’s initiatives as well as strengthening the agenda on inclusion, resilience and sustainability. Her other work experiences include working with the civil society organisation, Sisters in Islam, advocating for Muslim women’s rights; and the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development as a Parliamentary liaison and Special Officer to the Minister. She was a Project Manager with UNDP Malaysia on a project that focused on increasing the participation of persons with disabilities in the workforce in the state of Johor (2008-2010). She also worked as a Programme Manager at Musawah, a global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family that works to advance human rights for women in Muslim contexts, in both their public and private lives.She graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison with a Masters in Southeast Asian Studies, Bachelor in Global Studies and a certificate in Global Cultures.
Maya Indira Ganesh
Maya Indira Ganesh is an assistant teaching professor at the Institute of Continuing Education (ICE) where she co-directs the MSt in AI Ethics and Society run jointly between ICE and LCFI.
Maya has a Drphil in Cultural Studies from Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany. Her doctoral work took the case of the ‘ethics of autonomous driving’ to study the implications of governance of and by algorithmic/AI technologies for human social relations, spaces, and bodies. In her research role at CFI, Maya’s work is organised around empirical inquiry into how people, places, and social organisations meet the design and development of technology. How do ideologies, institutional processes, business imaginaries, experts and lay publics convene around AI as a social and cultural entity? How does this inform how we navigate ‘ethical and responsible AI’?
She draws on varied theoretical and methodological genres, including feminist scholarship, social and cultural studies of technology, and Science and Technology Studies. Prior to academia, Maya spent over a decade as a researcher and activist working at the intersection of gender justice, security, and digital freedom of expression. An up-to-date list of publications, talks, and cultural practice can be found here.
rozana isa
Rozana Isa has been in the women’s rights movement for two decades. She is currently the Executive Director of Sisters in Islam (SIS), a non-governmental organisation working on the rights of Muslim women within the framework of Islam. A graduate in accounting, she began her activism with the Women’s Aid Organisation in 1999. Over the years, she was exposed to the challenges faced by women to have their rights recognised and exercised in a context of increasing politicisation of race and religion within a democratic nation with parallel legal systems. Rozana believes that knowledge, engagement and community building are part of the key ingredients to address ethno-religious extremisms and to raise consciousness on gender equality.
Suneeta Dhar
Suneeta is a Gender and Development Specialist with over four decades of experience on advancing women’s human rights. She has worked with community based civil society organisations as well as with international organisations. She coordinated the India Unit for the historic preparatory process for Beijing ’95 Conference, mobilising grassroots women leaders across diverse sectors, locations and social identities. She later worked with erstwhile UNIFEM South Asia in Delhi (1998-2006) and later at the New York office, managing the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (2006-2008). Suneeta was on the Board of Jagori – a feminist group in Delhi, and was Director (2008-2015) and currently a Senior Advisor with them. She currently advises 2 national organisations working on engendering women’s livelihoods, social and political empowerment.
She has designed multi-stakeholder programmes, engendering rural women’s livelihoods, ending violence against women, and building safer spaces for women/girls. As a feminist activist, she supports grassroots movement building, amplifying voices of women in their full diversity, especially from marginalised communities. As an educator, she facilitates capacity-building programmes for policy-makers, functionaries, and practitioners.
At a policy level, Suneeta has served on Expert Committees of the National Commission for Women and the Supreme Court’s Committee on Widow’s Rehabilitation. She is a member of the Beijing+25 and Civil Society Advisory Group of UN Women (India). As a member of the Global Coalition on Inclusive and Safe Spaces for Women/Girls (a global feminist alliance), she contributes to the UN Women’s Generation Equality Action Coalition on Gender Based Violence. She has been a Co-Founder and a former Board member of the Women’s Fund Asia (earlier South Asia Women’s Fund, Colombo). She is currently Chair of the sister fund in India – South Asia Women Foundation – India, advocating for resources to advance rights of diverse women and trans persons. She is a Co-Founder of the Feminist Policy Collective in India and in a Co-Convener role with them. She also serves as a member of the National Human Rights Commission’s Core Group on Rights of Women. She is an external member of a few Internal Committees on Sexual Harassment of government and civil society organisations.
Suneeta holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and has been a recipient of the Fulbright and Advocacy Institute Fellowships for Development Practitioners. She has co-authored research studies, training manuals, and papers on women’s safety, gender and SDGs, transformative governance and women’s rights. Suneeta was recognised by Apolitical’s 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy in 2021.
Tetet Lauron
Tetet is an activist and development worker with almost 30 years’ experience in multidisciplinary and multi-cultural settings at grassroots, national, regional and international levels. She works on different development issues and themes, but is most passionate about climate justice. Tetet strives to make the climate negotiations on finance, particularly loss and damage finance, accessible to a broader audience as a contribution to growing stronger global movements for climate justice.
melissa akhir
Melissa is a founder and partner at Kemban Kolektif: a feminist, intergenerational and collaborative consultancy particularly in the intersections of gender within larger human rights. She has multisectoral experience in access to justice, gender equality and children’s human rights in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. She was a human rights advocate at WCC Penang and WAO for almost 10 years. Prior to NGO work, she was a Deputy Public Prosecutor and Senior Federal Counsel at the Attorney-General’s Chambers for almost 10 years.
niluka gunawardena
Niluka Gunawardena is an educator, researcher and disability rights advocate based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Niluka earned a Master of Arts degree in Disability and Gender (Distinction) from the University of Leeds, and she teaches Disability Studies at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. She is a consultant and curriculum developer for the University of Colombo. She is a faculty member of the Disability Sexuality and Rights Online Institute (DSROI) hosted by CREA. Niluka has taught Geography and Earth Science to secondary school students for several years and is currently working on introducing Mindfulness to school children and educators in conjunction with the Open University of Sri Lanka. Niluka regularly conducts community training workshops on Disability Rights using the CRPD-SDGs framework for a multitude of NGOs and DPOs. She also influences disability inclusive corporate policy
by leading disability rights awareness sessions for corporations. As a researcher, she has worked on evidence based policy for organisations like the Human Environment Research Observatory, Equal Ground and BBC. She is a co-founder of The Spectrum, a peer support group for individuals with psychosocial disabilities and Union of Abilities, a peer group for youth with physical disabilities in Sri Lanka. She is a Board member of Women Enabled International and serves on the Disability Advisory Panel of HYPE Sri Lanka.
lyana khairuddin
Dr Lyana Khairuddin is Political Adviser at the British High Commission, Kuala Lumpur. She founded the social movement #bringbackthekebaya in 2016, promoting the celebration of Malay culture and women empowerment through this traditional blouse. Lyana trained as a virologist, with published international works in Human Papillomavirus (HPV; the virus known to cause cervical cancer) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Her former column, NaturalLy, published by The Star Media Group commented on socio- and identity politics in Malaysia.
Ivy N Josiah
Ivy N Josiah is a women’s rights advocate, a gender consultant and trainer. She has a background in women’s human rights addressing multiple forms of discrimination against women and has conducted trainings in over 15 countries.
Currently, Ivy is a non- Executive Director of the International Women’s Development Agency, Australia (IWDA) and a member of the Programme & Management Committee of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development (APWLD), Thailand.
She was recently appointed as Co-Chair of Urgent Action Fund, Asia and Pacific.
As a member of Five Arts Centre she has taken on the role of Producer for several Five Arts Centre productions and projects.
Ivy is the former President and Executive Director of Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO), where over 20 years she developed WAO’s shelter services and advocacy strategies for law and policy reform. WAO opened Malaysia’s first shelter for survivors of domestic violence in 1982.
Telesia Ofa’ Kobiti
Telesia Kobiti currently works as a programme officer at the Pacific Disability Forum (PDF). She has been at the PDF for over 5 years and was formerly their research officer. Her areas of expertise include access auditing, and she is the key lead for work on accessibility while providing support for work on support services and social protection. Telesia also works across the Sustainable Development Goals in alignment with the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Telesia has a Master of Arts in Diplomacy and International Affairs, a Postgraduate Diploma in Diplomacy and International Affairs, as well as a Bachelor Degree in Sociology and Social Work from the University of the South Pacific. She had also spent a semester at the University of Gottingen, Germany, as an exchange student studying social and cultural anthropology.
She is passionate about advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities and is true to her stand of working to change the narrative for persons with disabilities in the Pacific region.
Shireen Jejeebhoy
Shireen Jejeebhoy is a demographer and social scientist, currently Visiting Distinguished Faculty at the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, founder and director, Aksha Centre for Equity and Wellbeing, Mumbai, and President, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, Paris. Previously, she served as Senior Associate, Population Council, India and Scientist, Reproductive Health and Research Department, WHO, Geneva. Her research has focused on adolescent and youth health and development (she led India’s first sub-national survey of youth), the empowerment of women and girls, gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health and rights including abortion and child marriage.
