The GFG has elected its co-chairs

lundi 20 avril 2009, par CSO-Effectiveness

The Global Facilitation Group has elected Deepali Sood (Plan International) and Azra Sayeed (Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development) as its co-chairs for a term of one year up to end-April 2010.

The role of the co-chairs will be to ensure external representation of the GFG as appropriate, to call for and chair GFG meetings and Global Assemblies and to liaise with the Consortium of the Open Forum.

Azra Talat Sayeed is an activist working for the rights of small and landless peasants, women and children in Pakistan. She works for and is a founding member of the NGO Roots for Equity.

Azra has served as a board member of a number of national and international organisations. Currently, she is the co-chair of the national working group on home-based workers in Pakistan. She has been a member of the Programme and Managament Committee of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) since 2005. She also serves on the Board of Conveners of the Asia Pacific Research Network and the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from the University of Karachi, Pakistan. She has also a Master’s degree in Pharmacy Administration from the University of Utah, USA, and a Ph.D. in Social and Administrative Pharmacy from the University of Minnesota, USA.

She taught for many years at the Women Studies Center, University of Karachi, and is visiting professor at the Aga Khan University. Currently, she is based (very temporarily) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, serving as Interim Regional Coordinator of APWLD.

Deepali Sood is the Head of Plan International’s EU Liaison Office in Brussels. Plan is an international NGO working with and for children in promoting and protecting their rights.

She is also the President of the CONCORD Development Education Forum and a member of the Management Board of DEEEP (Development Education Exchange in Europe Programme).

Deepali is of Indian-origin and hails from New Delhi. After completing her Bachelor’s degree at the renowned Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, she earned a Master’s degree in Linguistics from the University of Hamburg (Germany). She has been involved in campaigns such as education for children in the slum areas of New Delhi as well as in teaching at the Blind School for Boys there.

She has been a scholarship-holder of the well known German Foundation Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung.

She has previously worked for NGOs such as the European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), the European Forum for Child Welfare (EFCW) ; international organisations such as ILO-IPEC (International Labour Organisation - International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour), the Centre for Research of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) as well as in the German political foundation Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung in international development cooperation.