Director

Sabra Bano, Director Gender Concerns International

Sabra Bano, Director of Gender Concerns International and Head of Mission for several international Election Observations, is a renowned international gender expert and an advocate.

In 2019, Bano was nominated as International Gender Champion for her persistent international advocacy in promoting for women rights and gender equality. Her work has been contributing to shaping the agenda of Beijing+25 and UNSCR 1325 on the issue of Global Gender Electoral Disparity in Eurasia for over 20 years. In 2020 she was proclaimed the fourth inspirational woman by Think Tank Hub Geneva, an initiative undertaken by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

Since the foundation of Gender Concerns International in 2004, Ms. Bano has been engaged in highlighting the strength, resilience, and status of women in Central & South Asia and the MENA region, in collaboration with the United Nations, European Union, and national stakeholders.

Ms. Bano has designed and launched the Gender Election Observation Mission (GEOM)– the first of its kind to exclusively asses elections from a gender perspective – and has campaigned for gender-based electoral reform, especially addressing the issue of Electoral GBV, internationally, including countries like Pakistan, Tunisia, Morocco and The Netherlands.

Reflected through the work of Gender Concerns International, she specializes in the areas like Gender and Democracy, Gender and Environmental Sustainability and Gender and Crisis Response. She has initiated and led the work in drafting of a gender-sensitive constitution in Libya by engaging regional and local women leaders and experts. During the Katowice-Poland COP24 UN Climate Change Conference, Bano organized side events promoting instruments that link gender-inclusive human and environmental security with the sustainable development. Moreover, as a response to the Covid19 outbreak Bano set up the #Shecarescovid19 program drawing attention to women`s global leadership role in dealing with crisis situation. On International Women`s Day 2022 she invited partner women leaders from Ukraine to highlight the significance of their role and position in facilitating the effective international humanitarian assistance.