A gender-focussed post-pandemic recovery

Over the course of her career as a senior official at the world’s premier development organisation, the World Bank Group, Margo Thomas provided policy advice to over 50 national and sub-national governments. She was Chief of Secretariat for the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment and served as co-chair of both the 2018 Think 20 Task Force on Gender Economic Equity and the 2019 Think 20 Task Force on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In her current role, Thomas mobilises initiatives aimed at increasing opportunities for the economic empowerment of disadvantaged and under-represented groups globally.

Nahla Valji has worked on issues relating to transitional justice, rule of law and gender equality for nearly 20 years. She served as both Acting Chief and Deputy Chief of the Peace and Security section at UN Women and headed the Secretariat for the Global Study on the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 for the Security Council’s 15-year review of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. Prior to her work with the UN, Valji founded and managed the International Journal of Transitional Justice and led the regional transitional justice work of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa.

Prior to joining Friends of Europe, Dharmendra Kanani was director of policy at the European Foundation Centre (EFC). He was the England director at the Big Lottery Fund, the largest independent funder in the UK and fourth largest in the world. Dharmendra has held senior positions in the public and voluntary sectors and advisor to numerous ministerial policy initiatives across the UK.