Nadya Khalife

Functional Title: Regional Advisor for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment
Institution: ESCWA - Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
Email Address: nadya.khalife@un.org
Phone Number: +1 813406 9494

Bio
Nadya Khalife serves as the regional gender equality advisor at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN ESCWA) where she technically supports and advises national gender machineries and other national institutions on efforts to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Prior to joining ESCWA, she served as a Women, Peace and Security Specialist at UN Women Lebanon, providing technical support and assistance to the Government of Lebanon on the development and implementation of Lebanon’s National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325. She developed the organization’s women, peace and security (WPS) program and led UN coordination efforts on WPS.

Nadya has extensive expertise in the Middle East and North Africa region and has undertaken research in numerous countries on violence against women, harmful traditional practices, and personal status laws. Her work on female genital mutilation contributed to the passage of a law on family violence in Iraqi Kurdistan and was featured in a 2013 documentary produced by The Guardian and BBC Arabic. She is also a contributing author to The Unfinished Revolution: Voices from the Global Fight for Women’s Rights.

Nadya holds an M.A. in Gender and Cultural Studies from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts and B.A. in International Studies from Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, Virginia.

Social

Years of experience 11-15 Years
Social field: Inequality, Social Protection
Additional fields of expertise: Gender equality

Governance and Institutional

Years of experience 11-15 Years

SDGs Expertise:
GOAL 5: Gender Equality
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal


Countries of Expertise:
Arab region
Algeria
Bahrain
Egypt
Iraq
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Mauritania
Morocco
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
State of Palestine
Sudan
Syrian Arab Republic
Tunisia
United Arab Emirates
Yemen


  • Capacity building
  • Communication
  • Data analysis
  • Programming
  • Project management
  • Resource mobilization
  • Strategic planning
  • Team management
Degree Title University Graduation Date
M.A. in Gender and Cultural Studies Simmons University 1999-05-28
B.A. in International Relations and minor in French Virginia Wesleyan College 1997-05-30
Title Completion Date
Certified Mediator 2022-10-28
Certificate in UN SWAP Gender Scorecard 2018-12-14
Title URL Author/Co-Author
Women’s Engagement in Security in the Arab World: Reconstructing Security from a Gender Perspective, unpublished, April 2020 Author
How Come You Allow Little Girls to Be Married: Child Marriage in Yemen https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/yemen1211ForUpload_0.pdf Author
They Took Me and Told Me Nothing: Female Genital Mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan https://www.hrw.org/report/2010/06/16/they-took-me-and-told-me-nothing/female-genital-mutilation-iraqi-kurdistan Author
Gender Justice and the Law Reports (national reports and index; 2018) https://www.undp.org/arab-states/publications/gender-justice-and-law-study Co-Author