Where Is Canada’s International Leadership In The Promotion Of Gender Equality And Women’s Rights?
Read the biographies of women taking part at a panel discussion on Parliament Hill “Where is Canada’s International Leadership in the Promotion of Gender Equality and Women’s Rights” on Monday, May 3 at 9:30 am at 256S Centre Block, Parliament Hill.
Lydia Alpízar Durán, Executive Director, Association for Women’s Rights in Development
Lydia Alpízar Duran is a renowned expert on women’s human rights and has been the Executive Director of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) since 2007. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Fund for Women and the Central American Women’s Fund, and the founder of several Latin American youth networks on sexual and reproductive rights. As part of her work with AWID, she has extensive experience in producing strategic research and fostering dialogue and action to mobilize resources in support of women’s organizing for gender equality.
Joanna Kerr, Incoming Chief Executive ActionAid International
Joanna Kerr is the incoming Chief Executive of ActionAid International – an organization fighting poverty and injustice in 50 countries. Recently she was the Director of Policy and Outreach for Oxfam Canada. She is the former Executive Director of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID). She has been an advisor to numerous organizations including Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, Mama Cash, the UN Trust Fund on Violence Against Women and The Stephen Lewis Foundation. In the nineties she was a Senior Researcher at The North-South Institute in Ottawa where she managed the gender program. Joanna Kerr holds an MA in Gender and Development from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. Some of her recent publications include Financial Sustainability for Women’s Movements Worldwide (AWID 2007) and The Future of Women’s Rights: Global Visions and Strategies (2004, ZED press) edited with Ellen Sprenger and Alison Symington.
Micheline Ravololonarisoa, Ex-Chief Africa Section, UNIFEM, and Co-Director of the Africa Policy Forum
Micheline Ravololonarisoa is the Ex-Chief of the Africa Section of UNIFEM. She was previously Regional Director of the Sub Regional office of UNIFEM in Dakar. Prior to joining the United Nations, she was the Program Director of the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD), an international consortium of NGOs based in the United Kingdom. She is also a member of a number of African women's networks such as Akina Mama Wa Afrika and Abantu for Development and one of the co-directors of the Africa Policy Forum.
Katherine McDonald, Executive Director, Action Canada for Population and Development
Katherine McDonald, LL.B., LL.M., is the first Executive Director of Action Canada for Population and Development, which was formed in 1997. ACPD is a human rights advocacy organization which works at the national and international level to advance sexual and reproductive rights and women’s empowerment as well as the full implementation of the policy and financial commitments made in Cairo at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). Before joining ACPD in 1997, Katherine McDonald practiced law for ten years, and was the Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Public Legal Education Society, and President of the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women. She is a Past President of Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada, and a former member of the regional and international governing bodies of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
Betty Plewes, Development Consultant
Betty Plewes has spent most of her career working in the voluntary sector. After working as a volunteer cooperant in a number of African countries, she filled various senior management roles at CUSO. For nearly a decade, she was President and CEO of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation. She was a founding member of Partnership Africa Canada and the Voluntary Sector Roundtable, a group of organizations that came together in 1995 to strengthen the voice of Canada's voluntary sector. She currently works as a consultant on issues relating to the non-profit sector. She is a board member of ACORD, an African-led social justice organization, and of Canadian Crossroads International.