Mediators

Alexandra M. Dias is an International Relations scholar and Africanist based at the Department of Political Studies of NOVA University of Lisbon (NOVA/FCSH). She is a researcher and member of the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI-NOVA). She has integrated and been the Principal Investigator of several research projects on Conflict, Peace and Security in Africa with fieldwork experience in the Horn of Africa. She has integrated the International Electoral Observation Missions of Somaliland Presidential Elections in June 2010 & November 2017. She is a founding member of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network (MWMN). She joined the network because it engages with mediation across divides: societal, civilizational and gender-based ones; it is based upon the principle of bringing together different parties without advancing one party’s interests in detriment of the others; and it is gender-sensitive and through those lenses it engages with silenced topics in peace processes.

Anna Cervi is an Italian national with almost 15 years overseas experience with International Organisations in leading humanitarian interventions in Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Darfur. She negotiated and managed anumber of programs in support to peace and reconciliationpromoting the use of ADRs with particular focus on humanitarian access, gender, inclusion and transitional justice. In Syria since 2015, she just ended her assignment as Country Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, where she was a spokesperson with the Government of Syria and in a number of high-level events in European capitals on behalf of the aid community. She became a member of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network in 2019 to step up her efforts in support of women, peace and security. She is an associate of the School of Development Innovation and Change (SDIC), carrying out research on war and inequality. Anna is a qualified mediator by the International Mediation Institute (IMI), registering as a mediator with the Italian Ministry of Justice. She is currently studying to become a Certified Global Sanctions Specialist with ACAMS and doing research on women leadership in mediation and negotiations in humanitarian action and their contribution to peace. Anna holds two degrees in Development and Cooperation Studies from the University of Bologna and a Master of Science in Forced Migration from the University of Oxford. She further strengthened her mediation expertise by taking the Swiss FDFA’s Peace Mediation Course and other specialised courses on negotiations, women leadership and empowerment.

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.

Ambassador Cecilia Attard-Pirotta, currently Malta’s Ambassador to Israel, is a Maltese diplomat and has worked on Mediterranean, European Union and Commonwealth issues. She has also worked on projects for underprivileged girls, with a focus on education and improving the status of women. She has specialized in Mediterranean Affairs and her exposure to the realities prevailing in this Region, as well as her conviction that women’s participation in peace building processes in the Mediterranean is crucial, has instilled in her the conviction that women need to further engage in transforming and sustaining democracy, preventing conflict, as well as securing peace and security; this is what motivated her to join the group of founding members of the MWMN. While working on peace-related projects, She repeatedly underlines that peace is only the beginning of any reconciliation, not the end. Reconciliation requires numerous societal tasks, if it is to succeed and hence her engagement in promoting dialogue between women from different communities.

Chiara Segrado is an Italian national with almost 20 years of experience in International Development and Diplomacy, passionate about gender issues and women’s rights.

A graduate in International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Trieste with a final thesis on the Empowerment of Women through Microcredit, she holds a Master-Degree in Microfinance from the University of Bergamo, Italy.

Her extensive experience in development spans from field work with Italian NGOs in Brazil and India to the UN Fellowship at the Italian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt and regional work in the Middle East with the International Finance Corporation (IFC, World Bank Group). She has worked as Regional Representative for the Middle East, South East Europe, Asia and Latin America for Save the Children Italy for 8 years, gaining strong field experience through extensive travel in all four regions and expertise in rights-based approaches, in particular for children and women.

In 2015 she has joined the United Kingdom Representation to the United Nations Agencies based in Rome as Deputy Permanent Representative to the World Food Programme (WFP); she has since increased her skills in multilateral diplomacy, intergovernmental processes and humanitarian affairs.

Chiara has joined the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network (MWMN) in 2020.

Claudia Maffettone is the Track II Mediation Program Manager at Search for Common Ground. She has led over 35 dialogue initiatives in support of US-Iran and US-Russian relations, the Syrian peace process, demining in Libya, and of broader inclusion in peace processes. She is an advocate for the advancement of the practice of mediation and leads an international consortium to support African insider mediators and their engagement in high-level processes. She is an experienced mediator, trained at the US Institute of Peace, PATRIR, Harvard Law School, and the New York City Bar. Previously, Claudia worked at Soliya, a pioneering organization in the field of virtual exchange and intercultural dialogue, advancing partnerships with educational institutions, NGOs and CSOs in the MENA Region, Asia, Europe, and North America. Claudia holds a BA in International Relations and Diplomacy from the Universita’ degli Studi di Napoli ‘L’Orientale’, in Italy, and a MA Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford in the UK, where is studied as a Rotary Peace Fellow. Through her work, Claudia has had the opportunity to learn that while only a small number of women are mediators, signatories or negotiators in peace processes, the engagement of women in mediation makes peace agreements all the more likely to succeed.  Thus she is eager to ensure those numbers increase and that the women at the table may be equipped with the best tools to make a meaningful difference and increase the sustainability of peace agreements.

Edita Tahiri is a key founder and leader of the movement for independence of Kosovo. She was Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs for ten years during the hard times of Kosovo’s liberation (1990-2000), Minister of Dialogue, Minister of Public Administration, Peace Negotiator and Member of Parliament in five terms.

She has a long-standing experience in foreign policy and security, international relations, conflict resolution, international peace negotiations and post-conflict transitions. She is a distinguished peace negotiator and chief negotiator for Kosovo and the Balkan region with about 30 years’ experience. She is recognized as the only woman peace negotiator in the Balkans participating in the international peace processes such as the Rambouillet International Peace Conference on Kosovo (1999), Pre-Rambouillet Peace Negotiation (1998), London Conference on Disintegration of Former Yugoslavia (1992) and Chief Negotiator of Kosovo at the EU facilitated Dialogue on normalization of neighborly relations between Kosovo and Serbia (2011-2017). As the Chief Negotiator of Kosovo in the EU mediated peace talks with Serbia, she is the signatory of first ever-reached agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, after 20 years of peace talks.

She is dedicated to empowerment of women and WPS agenda and has been serving as Chair of the Regional Women’s Lobby in South East Europe for the past 14 years. She is a member of the Women Waging Peace Network.
She is a graduate of Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration with a major in international relations. She holds a PhD in Political Sciences focused in the international state-building from Prishtina University in cooperation with SAIS Johns Hopkins University. She is a Fulbright Scholar and a graduate of George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.

Elif Kalan is a freelance consultant on conflict analysis and resolution, peacebuilding and community-based programs and initiatives with extensive experience working with international organisations, such as GIZ, UN agencies, the European Commission, IMC and Ret International. Recently, she consulted for UN Women Turkey in Gender Sensitive Refugee Response Program working with Syrian and host communities on gender in complex emergencies and conflict as well as on mitigation through local mediation practices and social cohesion approach. She has also organised trainings and workshops in numerous universities. She is a co-founder of Conflictus Consultancy on Conflict Resolution in Turkey where she has designed, maintained, developed and delivered several training programs and projects to boost the skills and knowledge of groups particularly on conflict resolution and community-based mediation. She has been active within the MWMN Turkey antenna since the beginning and has co-conducted a gender sensitive mediation training program titled ‘Women and Mediation’ reaching out to women working extensively in refugee response programs at CSOs and local authorities. She is highly motivated and interested in women and youth leadership in conflict resolution and mediation processes at all levels and in developing tailor-made and specific training programs through using gender-sensitive and youth and women-specific mediation methods. She holds an MA in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Sabanci University in Istanbul and an MSc in Political Sociology from London School of Economics with Jean-Monnet scholarship as is part of the Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship Program and the Legislative Fellowship Program supported by the US State Department.

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.