Egypt

Sarah Abdelgelil is a Senior Advisor on Gender Equality at NAMA Women Advancement Establishment. Between 2015-2018, she was the Program Officer for the Women, Peace and Security program at the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding (CCCPA) and has been engaged in mediation support activities in Africa and the Middle East. She also led the design and development of several peer-coaching workshops for African and Arab professionals and community leaders. She is an experienced trainer on conflict mediation, gender mainstreaming in peacebuilding and supporting national reconciliation. She also provided technical support to Track II processes with regards to women’s participation and the integration of the women, peace and security agenda in Libya and Syria. She has joined the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network since its foundation with the view to influence current peacemaking and peacebuilding efforts in the region and provide a voice to Mediterranean women during and after peace processes to ensure sustainable peace and development. She holds a master’s degree in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. 

Esraa Saied is a peace and development consultant with extensive experience working with several international and regional organisations. Prior to that, she was a program manager for Peacemaking, Peacebuilding and Women Peace and Security (WPS) at the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA). She is also the former Secretariat of the International Association of Peacekeeping Centers (IAPTC).

Prior to joining CCCPA, she was a training manager at Sutherland Global Services for five years. She served in different duty stations including New York, Louisiana, Manila and Cairo.

She worked at CCCPA from 2014 to 2020, and her responsibilities included managing all capacity building and research activities in the areas of peacemaking, peacebuilding and WPS. She took part in developing many of CCCPA’s training manuals, including (Conflict Analysis, Dialogue, Negotiation and Mediation, Women Empowerment in Peace Processes, Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse). She was also in charge of implementing all pre-deployment trainings conducted to the Egyptian peacekeepers. She has coordinated several high-level workshops in partnership with the African Union and United Nations (in NY, Addis and Cairo).

Prior to joining CCCPA, she was a training manager at Sutherland Global Services for five years. She served in different duty stations including New York, Louisiana, Manila and Cairo.

She holds a Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of St. Andrews (UK, 2018). Her thesis focused on Methodologies of Evaluating UN Peace Operations. She holds a BA in Political Science from the Cairo University, 2009.

She joined the network because of her belief in the significant importance of women empowerment and the dire need for their inclusion in peace and development processes.

Soad Shalaby is an Egyptian diplomat, who has served her country for 40 years including as ambassador to several countries. She is presently the Director General of the Egyptian African Centre for Women and is serving her second term as a member of the Board of the Tana High Level Forum. She is a founding member of FEMWISE, the Arab Women Mediators Network, MWMN and a member of the Global Alliance of Regional Women Mediator Networks contact group. She was elected Member of the Committee of Elders of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa for a 5-year term. Elected twice, she served for ten years as Member of the Council of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in Sanremo. From 2007 to 2012, she was the Director of the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding. Throughout her career, she was selected member of the AU Panel of Experts for the Evaluation of the African Standby Force in 2014; member of the expert group who launched the report of the AU MSU; member of the POW team for the Evaluation of the present Kenyan pre Presidential Election; and headed the COMESA team for monitoring the parliamentarian election in the Kingdom of Swaziland. She completed many courses such as the AU Senior Mission Leaders Course and the Clingendael Institute Course on Negotiation and Mediation as a tool for conflict resolution. She published several articles, nationally and internationally on WPS, and is a regular commentator and a guest speaker on African issues on Nile TV international, and many regional and international conferences.

Ayat Mohamed is a Gender Analyst at the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria. She had previously worked on women and civil society inclusion in the Syrian political process with the Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution (NOREF). She is a strong proponent of women’s inclusion in political processes, mediation efforts and on all levels. Ms. Mohamed has experience in mediation support, social dialogue, inclusive peace processes. She has written on hybrid mediation and women in peace processes. She has experience working on Middle East contexts. Ms. Mohamed has an MA degree in political science, and speaks Arabic, English, and intermediate French.