Secretary General of Commission for Women, Jordan

Dr. Salma Nims was appointed Secretary-General of the Jordanian National Commission for Women in 2014. She works to further its mission to transform the national development agenda to ensure the full and equal participation of men and women in the development process, as means to achieving development as well as gender equality in Jordan. She holds a PhD in Development Planning (2004) and a MSc in Sustainable Development (1998) from University College London, University of London. She has 15-years’ experience in the areas of gender and development and has been an activist for women’s rights since the early 1990s.

Director and Deputy for the ASG for Human Rights, OHCHR, New York

Mr. Craig Mokhiber is a Director in the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). A lawyer and specialist in international human rights law, policy and methodology, he has served the UN since 1992. As chief of the Human Rights and Development Team in the 1990s, he led the development of OHCHR's original work on human rights-based approaches to development and human rights-sensitive definitions of poverty. He has also served as the UN's Senior Human Rights Advisor in both Palestine and in Afghanistan, led the team of human rights specialists attached to the High Level Mission on Darfur, headed the Rule of Law and Democracy Unit, and served as Chief of the Economic and Social Issues Section, and Chief of the Development and Economic and Social Issues Branch at OHCHR Headquarters.

Executive Director, Instituto del Tercer Mundo (Third World Institute)

Mr. Roberto Bissio is executive director of the Third World Institute, a non-profit research and advocacy organization based in Uruguay and member of the editorial team of the Spotlight report on sustainable development. Mr. Bissio is a member of the international committee of Third World Network and serves on the board of the Program on Women's Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, based in Delhi, India. In 2004, together with Nafis Sadik, Sir Richard Jolly, Dr. Mbikusita-Lewanika and Margaret Snyder, Mr. Bissio was member of an advisory panel to UNIFEM that recommended the upgrading of that fund for women into a full UN agency, kicking off a process that ultimately led to the creation of UN-Women. He was been a member of the civil society advisory group to the UNDP administrator between 2000 and 2014. He served on the board of WEDO (Women’s Environment and Development Organization, based in NY) and of the Montreal International Forum. Mr. Bissio has written on development issues since 1973 as a journalist and columnist and he is the author of the reference books “Third World Guide” and “World Guide”.

Director of Gender and Community Development, Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development, Uganda

Ms. Sanyu Jane Mpagi is a gender and social development expert. She works in the National Machinery for promotion of Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women which is the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development in the Republic of Uganda. She is currently the Director for Gender and Community Development. She has wide experience in policy analysis, programme development and implementation, of over 20 years. She holds a Master’s Degree in Development Studies specializing in Gender Analysis in Development, from University of East Anglia, UK and Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture specializing in Rural Development, Extension, Administration and Management. She also has specialised in Food Science and Nutrition, population issues, community development, Microfinance, Social Protection as well as Public Administration and Management.

Executive Director, Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (MGoS)

Nalini Singh, from Fiji, is a feminist and a social development specialist with over 17 years’ experience in design, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation of women’s rights and development programmes in Asia Pacific. Her particular interests are in the issues of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), decent work and organisational capacity strengthening.

Nalini is presently the Executive Director of the Fiji Women's Rights Movement (FWRM- www.org.fj). Prior to joining FWRM over two years ago, Nalini worked as the Programme Manager- Advocacy and Capacity Building for the Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW- www.arrow.org.my) based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 7 years. And before this she was a Programme Officer at the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD- www.apwld.org) based in Chaing Mai, Thailand for 5 years. Nalini is a graduate of the University of the South Pacific with a Bachelor of Arts.

In other roles, Nalini is also a Steering Committee member and current Chair of the Fiji Women’s Fund (www.fijiwomensfund.org); the National Gender Adviser, Asian Development Bank Technical Assistance Project 9348-REG: Strengthening Women’s Resilience to Climate Change and Disaster Risk in Fiji; Regional Council member of Asia Pacific Forum for Women, Law and Development; Board member of International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (www.iwraw-ap.org) ; and the International Advisor- Women’s Rights to LOOM Nepal (a Nepali young women’s NGO).

With her work on women’s rights, Nalini has been involved in monitoring the MDGs and advocating for the advancement of gender equality through the various goals. As the focus shifted to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Nalini followed closely the processes through the over year –long Open Working Group processes. She participated in online meetings, selection processes for speakers for the formal dialogues and attended many meetings in Asia Pacific and internationally advocating for the inclusion of meaningful targets and indicators; meaningful engagement of governments and greater focus on accountability to the people. Nalini also has participated in the High Level Political Forum and in the 2017 session she was invited to be a discussant at the High Level Panel on Gender Equality. Back at home in Fiji, Nalini is monitoring how her government is delivering on the SDGs with a particular focus on how the national development agenda is delivering for women and young women and leaving no one behind.