Biography of speakers - Women Conference 2022

Since her youth she has been linked to student movements and social movements, especially to the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca de Madrid (Platform of People Affected by Mortgages, in Madrid). In 2015, she was elected Deputy for Madrid in the Congress of Deputies, being elected again in the elections of 2016 and 2019.

In January 2020 she was appointed Minister, occupying the position in the Ministry of Equality. Irene Montero’s policies focus on inequalities and violence against women, applying an intersectional perspective to protect and expand the rights of all women. She is implementing policies to eradicate male violence in all its forms, including those that  occur in couples or ex-partners.

Helena Dalli is the first EU Commissioner for Equality since December 2019. Her role is to deliver on the Union of Equality chapter within the Political Guidelines of President von der Leyen, by strengthening Europe’s commitment to equality and inclusion in all of its senses.

Prior to taking her role as Commissioner, Dalli held various political roles in Malta including Member of Parliament (1996 to 2019), Minister for European Affairs and Equality (2017 to 2019), and Minister for Social Dialogue, Consumer Affairs and Civil Liberties (2013-2017). She was also opposition Shadow Minister for public administration, equality, public broadcasting and national investments (1998-2013) and Junior Minister for Women’s Rights in the Office of Prime Minister (1996-1998).

H.E Ayman Al-Mufleh was appointed the Minister of Social Development of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in October 2020. The Ministry of Social Development (MOSD) leads the creation of comprehensive and integrated policies to ensure societal growth through the provision of services that improve the quality of living among the citizens of Jordan.

Throughout his 35-year career H.E held various leadership roles in both the government and private sector. H.E attended and lent his expertise as a speaker and representative through his participation in various local and international conferences and workshops.

A career diplomat for the Egyptian government, Nasser Kamel held the position of Ambassador of Egypt to the United Kingdom from 2014 to 2018.

He was also Ambassador to France in the period 2006-2012, during which he took part in the drafting of the Joint Declaration of the 2008 Paris Summit that marked the launch of the Union for the Mediterranean. Furthermore, between 2012 and 2014, he was Assistant Minister for Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs.

From 2004 to 2006, he was the Director of Egypt’s Public Information Service. Prior to this position H.E. Kamel served in various embassies.

Svenja Schulze is Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development since December 2021. Her career:

March 2018 to December 2021 Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. 2017 to 2018 General Secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in North Rhine Westphalia. 2010 to 2017 Minister for Innovation, Science and Research of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. 2004 to 2018 Member of Parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia. 2000 to 2004 Business consultant with a public sector focus. 1997 to 2000 Member of Parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia. 1993 to 1997 Chairperson of the SPD youth organisation in North Rhine-Westphalia. 1993 to 1997
Freelance work in advertising and public relations. Since 1988
Member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected WHO Director-General for a five-year term by WHO Member States at the Seventieth World Health Assembly in May 2017, and was re-elected to a second term in May 2022 during the Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly.  Dr Tedros was the first WHO Director-General elected from among multiple candidates and is the first person from the WHO African Region to head the world’s leading public health agency.

Prior to his election as WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros held many leadership positions in global health, including as Chair of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, Chair of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, and Co-chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Board.

Maya Morsy took office as President of Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW) on 1 February 2016 elected as the third and the youngest President of the NCW since it was established in 2000. Dr. Morsy is an Egyptian political scientist and specialist in public policy and an advocate for Women and Human Rights.

In her capacity as President of NCW in Egypt, Morsy is also head of the executive council of the Arab Women Organization Current President of the Ministerial Council of Women Development Organization and Chair of the Executive Bureau of the Women Development Organization of the Member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
She has more than 26 years’ experience National, Regional and International organizations working in the National Council for Women, the United Nations, USAID, Academic institutions, and Private Sector.

She organizes and coordinates the activities of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy in the field of EU funds, international programmes and projects, international cooperation and coordination on EU affairs. She monitors and coordinates the activities of the Directorate General for European Funds, International Programmes and Projects and the European Affairs and International Cooperation  Directorate of the MLSP, as well as the International Cooperation, Programmes and European Integration Directorate of the Social Assistance Agency.

Natalia Efremova is a specialist with many years of experience in programme and project management, control, communication and monitoring of programmes financed by the European Social Fund.

Since 2012, she has been a member of the European Social Fund+ Committee at the European Commission.

Jordi Curell is is presently Director for “Labour Mobility and International Affairs” in the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission. The Directorate is responsible for enhancing labour and social considerations in the EU’s overall external and trade policy, as well as developing the relations with international organisations, third countries and regions, including the EU strategic partners and the European neighbourhood in these fields.

Jordi Curell has a law background and since 1986 has worked in different positions in the European Commission, including in DG Employment.

Fatou Haidara is Managing Director of the Directorate of Global Partnerships and External Relations, responsible for UNIDO’s engagement with Member States and all external partners, including through the policymaking organs. She is also the Director General’s Special
Representative for Africa.

Prior to these assignments, she headed the Directorate of Corporate Management and Operations, strategically positioning the Organization for increased impact and stakeholder accountability.

Prior to joining UNIDO, she served the Government of Mali for eight years, including as Minister of Employment and Vocational Training and Minister of Industry, Trade and Private Sector Development.

Ms. Claudine Aoun was appointed as President of the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) in 2017, where she works on empowering Lebanese women, protecting their rights, as well as ensuring their effective participation in the society.

Ms. Aoun is also a committed environmental activist, working on several important matters. She is also renown for having led and managed numerous initiatives and events for the Lebanese Presidency including reforestation actions all over Lebanon.

She was chosen as a Forbes Lebanon 100 awardee in 2017. Since 2022 she is the focal point on behalf of Lebanon in the WPS Focal Points Network in New York.

Birgit LOESER of German nationality is a senior EU official with more than twenty-five years of professional experience in the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy. Placed in the EU’s External Action Service (EEAS), she currently holds the position of Head of Division Middle East North Africa Regional Affairs covering notably the Union for the Mediterranean, relations with the League of Arab States (LAS), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC).

From January 2018 until August 2021 she exercised the functions of Deputy Civilian Operations Commander/Chief of Staff in the Operational Headquarters for civilian CSDP missions (CPCC) responsible for the command and control of all civilian CSDP missions.

Before this, she worked in various positions within the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) structures.

Maria Jesus Conde is the Ambassador at large for the Feminist Foreign Policy of Spain. In her thirty years of professional experience, she has been Director of Human Rights in the Basque Government , Professor of Sociology of Law at the Basque Institute of Criminology, Substitute Judge in the Criminal Court of Bilbao, Regional Advisor Child Protection in Unicef for Latin America and the Caribbean, Unicef representative in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Bulgaria, Advisor to the Secretary of State for International Cooperation and Advisor to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Global Affairs.

Plácido Plaza López is, since February 2018, the Secretary General of the CIHEAM. An Agricultural Engineer with an extensive experience in applied agronomy both in Latin America and in the Mediterranean, he has a long experience in coordinating research and education networks with universities and R&D institutions on Mediterranean agriculture and natural resources management-related issues.

He has also managed EU cooperation programs and coordinated CIHEAM educational and research activities.

He has made gender equality and the empowerment of women in Mediterranean agro-food systems one of the priorities of his mandate.

On this capacity, he leads the implementation of MENA-OECD Initiative on Governance and Investment for Development. The Initiative promotes policy dialogue on governance, investment and private sector development between MENA and OECD countries. During this period the MENA Initiative has introduced the process of OECD peer reviewing in the MENA region, and extensively promoted country programmes of reform in the MENA region with a particular focus on Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Jordan.

Before joining the OECD in 2007, Mr. Conde was associate professor of political science and public policy at the University of Granada in Spain. In this position, Mr. Conde led several projects of academic co-operation, research and network building between Arab and European universities.

Senén Florensa is President of the Executive Committee of the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), President of the General Assembly of EuroMeSCo and Director of the quarterly magazine afkar/ideas and of the IEMed Mediterranean Yearbook.  He has a careeras a diplomat with Ambassador’s rank.

He has been Ambassador Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations and the International Organizations based in Vienna, President of the Board of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and President of the Convention of the Parties to UNODOC among others.

Since 2019 Arianna Censi is a member of Europen Committee of the Regions and she is the ARLEM Commission Embassador for Woman’s empowerment.

Since 2021 she is also the Deputy Mayor for Mobility of the City of MilanShe tooks a deep look at the path of establishment of the Metropolitan City of Milan. In mandate 2015 – 2016 she has been delegated by the Mayor Pisapia to the Mobility, the viability and human resources of the new institution.

In the last mandate (2016-2021) she has been delegated by the Mayor Sala to Deputy Mayor of the Metropolitan City of Milan and Managing Director of Infrastructure Maintenance, Strategic Planning, Organization, Personnel and Redevelopment.

Aawatif HAYAR is the Minister of Solidarity, Social Integration and Family in Morocco. She was President of Hassan II University Casablanca 2019-2021. She received the Degree of French “Agrégation” in Electrical Engineering from ENS Cachan in 1992. She received the DEA and Engineer Degrees in Signal processing Image, Telecommunications and Networks from ENSEEIHT Toulouse in 1997.

She joined EURECOM from 2001 to 2010 in France. In 2011 She joined UH2C as Professor at ENSEM engineering school-UH2C. Her research interests include Digital Transformation, Digital4Development, Social Frugal Smart Cities, Smart grids, Cognitive ICT …

In 2019 Dr. Amal Hamad was appointed as the Minister of Women’s Affairs; she is a feminist politician.

Dr. Amal held many important positions, since 2007 she was the head of the General Union of Palestinian Women in the Southern Governorates. She is also a member of the General Secretariat of the General Union of Palestinian Women at the national level. She was also a member of the Central Committee of Fatah Movement, a member of the Revolutionary Council, and served as the General Director of Women and Children in the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Outi Karkkainen is Senior HCD expert and gender focal point of the European Training Foundation (ETF). Her areas of expertise include EU development cooperation, project cycle management and M&E in human capital development and gender equality.

Her current interests are tackling root causes of horizontal and vertical gendered labour market segregation and bringing gender aspects on board to the green and digital transition related skills development agenda.

Emmanuelle Roure works as Neighbourhood/Central Asia/Gulf Countries Team Leader in the International Affairs Unit of the Directorate General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission. The team supports the sectoral cooperation on employment, labour and social policies with the Southern and Eastern Neighbourhood partners at bilateral and regional levels (i.e. Union for the Mediterranean, Eastern Partnership).

She has worked in the European Commission for more than 20 years, focusing mainly on external relations.

Tair Ifergan is the Director General of Labor, following 3 years of service as the Head of the National Institute for Technology and Science, both at the Directorate General of Labor.

Ms Ifergan is an active board member in the Council of Women in Technology and Science at the Ministry of Science and Technology and member of the Council of Certified Engineers and Technicians.

Maria Antonia Morillas is Director of the Institute of Women, an autonomous body attached to the Spanish Ministry of Equality. She has extensive experience in the field of democratic innovation, citizen participation and new forms of institutional governance. From 2016 until she was appointed Director, she was Deputy Director at a social entity specialized in the design, development and evaluation of innovative participatory processes in the public sphere.

A feminist and active member of the feminist movement in Andalusia, she is member of Izquierda Unida and the Andalusian Communist Party and has held public office as Councillor of the Malaga City Council and as provincial deputy, from 2011 to 2015.

Patricia Sanz Cameo is 3rd Vice President for Equality, Human Resources, Institutional Culture and Digital Inclusion of the ONCE Social Group.

She is an active promoter of women’s equality in all areas, she is also president of the Equality Observatory of the ONCE Social Group.

Neila Amara first embraced an academic carrier before devoting herself full-time to her work as a Technical Assistance & Program Development Specialist with a specific focus on women and youth economic empowerment and private sector development.

She works currently as an International Project Management Expert at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), coordinating inter alia the implementation of phase II of the project “Promoting women’s empowerment for Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development in the Middle-East and North-Africa region” labelled by The Union for the Mediterranean and implemented by UNIDO jointly with FAO and UN Women.

Ms Jihen Boutiba is the general director of BUSINESSMED, an organization aimed at supporting and reinforcing the private sector in the Mediterranean and MENA Region and she uses that position to advocate for a strengthened social dialogue, promote gender equality and empower youth by making sure they receive the tools, autonomy and motivation necessary to successfully contribute to the development of the organization.

Zohra Slim is InstaDeep’s Chief Web Officer. Specialised in artificial intelligence, InstaDeep is a Tunis and London-based enterprise that creates decision-making systems for solving real-world problems, has raised $100 million in Series B financing led by Alpha Intelligence Capital and CDIB. They can range from a large shipping company finding ways to efficiently transport thousands of containers to a railway station to the design of advanced therapeutics with silicon and routing components on a printed circuit board.

Daughter of a diplomat, she is a polyglot and has lived in 4 countries before she was 18, which gives her unique insight on people and cultures. She is completely self-taught with in-depth knowledge of software and system integrations.

In addition, she possesses a unique drive which, combined with her second-to-none people management skills, ensures projects are delivered to excellence and on time. After leading a team of developers in India, Zohra co-founded InstaDeep in 2014 with Karim Beguir.

Anne-France Wittmann works in the unit in charge of Regional Cooperation in the Southern Neighbourhood, at the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) of the European Commission. She notably focuses on women economic empowerment.

Her previous experience includes over ten years of programme management in non-governmental and decentralized cooperation organisations and with the United Nations, specialising in support to local actors of development notably in North Africa.

Tala KHRAIS is the “Country Director” for Jordan in the “Forum of Federations Project ”Empowering Women for Leadership Roles” funded by ‘’Global Affairs Canada’’. Prior to accepting this position, she worked as a national consultant for the Local Government Resilience Program at the Association of Netherlands Municipalities’ International Cooperation Agency (VNGI). She has more than 15 years of experience managing donor-funded projects that are carried out by both national and international organizations.

Joana Lima is the President of PAM Women’s Parliamentary Forum (2022-2024). Her current positions are: Head of the Portuguese Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean in the 15th legislature, Member of the Assembleia da República, Member of the Health Committee, Alternate Member of the Budget and Finance Committee, Alternate Member of the Committee on the Environment and Energy, Deputy Coordinator of the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group for Health, Member of the National Political Committee of the Socialist Party, Member of the Secretariat of the Trofa Department of Socialist Women.

She is interested in Gender equality, human and social rights, foreign policy, inclusive education and health, entrepreneurship, sustainable development and the fight against climate change.

Mrs. Saida Neghza – CEO of the SORALCOF Group and President of the General Confederation of Algerian Enterprises (CGEA), President of Business Africa, created the SORALCOF group in 1999, which now occupies an eminent position in 2 fields of activity, which are the key sectors for the development of the country.

Amneh Khasawneh works as a Director of Princess Basma Center for Jordanian Women’s Studies at Yarmouk University. She is an academic researcher, an activist in Gender Issues, Human Rights, and Women Rights, since youth hood.

She participated as an consultant in preparing the plan of the National Strategy for Jordanian Women, and their action plans. She focused to raise community awareness for youth through gender sensitization interactive drama, Amneh is also an active member of many local NGOs.

Anette is a gender and women’s rights specialist. Since joining GIZ in 2002, she has been working in various positions in headquarters and abroad, focusing on empowerment of women. She was responsible for projects on women’s political participation and the elimination of gender-based violence in Yemen and Bangladesh as well as a project on youth empowerment in Timor-Leste.

Since May this year, she is based in Egypt and is heading the regional Project “Gender responsive and inclusive Politics and Economy in the MENA region, which is active in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia.

Blanca Moreno-Dodson is the Director of the Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI), the only regional partnership gathering international development institutions, national, regional, and local authorities, and civil society from around the Mediterranean, currently hosted by UNOPS.

She has over thirty years of experience as a World Bank development economist, including several positions as Lead Economist.

Yasmine Seghirate is the Policy and Communications Manager and Gender Policy and Women Empowerment focal point at CIHEAM’s Headquarters. She was previously project officer in the office of the UN Under-Secretary-General for Innovative Financing for Development (UNITAID) and a consultant for the French Development Agency (AFD).

Her associative involvement led her to be a founding member of ATLAS (Algerian Talents and Leaders Association) and head of the CSR and Territories Commission of CACIF (Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in France).

Maggie Refaat, working as a Regional Gender Specialist, has joined the FAO Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa since 2018. Through the years, she gained experience on development research, women’s rights,  mainstreaming gender equality, project planning, gender-responsive monitoring and evaluation and the implementation of gender-transformative approaches in projects.

She works on developing gender-responsive polices in the regional office and conducting capacity building trainings and workshops for the staff in the country offices. She is a PSEA focal point for UNCT in Egypt. She is an advocate for women’s rights through being elected as a Parliamentarian in the Society of Gender Professionals. In addition, she is a member of the women empowerment committee in Rotary Egypt.

Currently serving as Regional Programme Management Officer (Risk Knowledge & Analysis) for United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Regional office for Arab States States, Saira Ahmed has been working on Multi-Donor Fund for projects for Disaster and Climate Preparedness, Risk assessments, Risk profiling & Disaster loss databases in 22 Arab Countries.

She supports Arab States in the development and implementation of their national disaster risk reduction plans, through risk assessments, development of disaster loss databases and disaster risk profiles. She is also the regional gender focal point for ROAS and have been working on gender responsive DRR in Arab region.

Anna Rosendahl is the Head of Unit for Middle East and North Africa, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Stockholm. She has been working at Sida for more than 20 years both at the HQ and at the Swedish Embassy in Vietnam. She has been responsible for several strategies and units over the years. Most recently she managed the team for global social development and gender equality.

Since August 2021 she heads the unit for the Middle East and North Africa at Sida in Stockholm. The team is supporting colleagues at the Embassies in Amman, Beirut, Bagdad and the Consulate General in Jerusalem to implement four strategies in the region. The team consists of advisors in areas such as gender equality, environment and climate change, economic development etc.

Sarine Karajerjian is the Program Director of the Environmental Politics program at the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI).

Prior to working at ARI, she worked for 15 years at the AUB’s Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs since the Institute’s inception. Her previous work covered strategic management, fundraising and outreach, and partnerships and grants management.  She is currently pursuing a PhD in Anthropology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris and writing her dissertation on the exile and trauma of Syrian refugee women in Beirut.

Africa Zanella is Gender focal point for the Climate Investment Fund, World Bank, International Gender Officer with lifewatch ERIC, Ex Government official in waste management policy and international trade. She is a pioneer in green economy policy and expert in integrating Gender Analysis in research projects. She worked as an international consultant on women empowerment and gender economics with various UN agencies. and as an advocate and speaker on women’s contribution to Climate Action .

Bettina Schreck joined UNIDO in 2009, were she spent over 10 years developing and implementing technical assistance projects in the fields of energy, climate change and environment. She focuses on the development of government led policy programs promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization. Her work covers the policy, financial and technical dimensions of technical assistance. In 2022 she has been appointed as gender officer, to expand my knowledge and skills in this field.

Prior to joining UNIDO, she had roles in the private sector.

A resident of war-torn Gaza, Majd Mashharawi observed the acute need for access to construction material in order to rebuild damaged buildings and infrastructure. She strove to meet this need by founding GreenCake in 2015, a company that creates environmentally friendly bricks from ash and rubble.

In the summer of 2017 she developed SunBox, an affordable solar system that produces energy to alleviate the effects of the energy crisis in Gaza, where access to electricity has been severely restricted, sometimes to less than three hours a day.

Last September Ms. Mashharawi and Sunbox company was awarded the Muhammed Ali Humanitarian Award in Louisville Kentucky by the Muhammad Ali Center. Most recently, SunBox has scaled up to the Saud market.

Victoria Rosell Aguilar is a Spanish magistrate and politician, current delegate of the Government against Gender Violence. She is a Spanish Judge with over 25 years of experience. She was admitted to the judicial career by competitive examination in 1996 and promoted to magistrate in 2001.

She is member of Judges for Democracy Association, the Women Judges of Spain Association and the International Association of Women Judges.

She started her career in the banking sector in 1985 in the Foreign Exchange department and completed her 16-years career in the sector as a manager in 2002.

She worked as Deputy Secretary General in Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality between 2004-2007. Between 2007 and 2011, she served as the Deputy Director General at the General Directorate of Social Services and Child Protection Agency. Between June 2012 and February 2014, she worked as Deputy Director General at the General Directorate of Child Services (Ministry of Family and Social Services).

As of 2014 she has been working as the Director General at the General Directorate of Women’s Status at the Ministry of Family and Social Services.

Lucie Dechifre is Programmes Manager at EuroMed Feminist Initiative, a policy network that provides expertise in the field of gender equality as inseparable from democracy building and citizenship and advocates for political solutions to all conflicts, and for the right of people to self-determination. She is specialist in programme management in humanitarian, development and peacebuilding contexts with more than 15 years of experience at different international civil society organisations.

Presently, her main focus area is combating violence against women and girls, promoting the participation of women in decision-making and building dialogues between civil society and public actors.

Cristiana Carletti is Associate Professor of International Public Law at the Department of Political Science of Roma Tre University. She is senior legal expert at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Inter-ministerial Committee for Human Rights and she has been member of several governmental delegations taking part in international conferences and events as well as attending official meetings.

She is author of several books and articles on specialized reviews covering topics such as IOs law, peace and security, development cooperation, human rights.

Her professional career has been mainly linked to TVE, where she has participated since 1993 in cultural entertainment programs, historical documentaries and news programs. In the News Services she has held different positions. Between 2010 and 2015 she held the position of Deputy to the Head of the International Area.

Since 2018 she collaborated with Alicia Gómez Montano in the area of Equality and elaborating the space “Las Píldoras de Carol”. After the death of Gómez Montano, she was appointed Editor of Equality, a position in which she continues today. Since February 2021 she has been directing the program ‘Objetivo Igualdad’ on TVE.

Ihssane is leading a brilliant career in audiovisual journalism. Ihssane joined the editorial staff of the Moroccan channel 2 M TV in 2004 and became a few years later, head of the social section in the editorial office and then Editor-in-Chief of the news. She also presents the news in French Info Soir since 2010.

She has been a member of 2M’s gender and diversity committee since its creation, and is a committed journalist who works closely with associations and NGOs involved in gender, inclusion and diversity issues.

Valbona Sulçe is a freelance journalist, media researcher and trainer from Tirana, Albania. Her fields of interest include: diversity in the media, gender equality, media literacy, and ethics in the media. She has lectured for many years the subjects of “Reporting Diversity”, “Introduction to Media and Communication” for several universities in Albania.

She is a trainer at the Albanian Media Institute and a media consultant for various organizations, national and international. Since 2018, she is an active member of AWA, the Albanian Woman in Audiovisual organization, whose mission is to achieve gender equality in the audiovisual sector.

Farah Ahmad works in the Al-Ghad Daily Newspaper since 2004, covering the Ministry of environment and Municipal Affair for more than 15 Years.

In her previous role as a regional campaign and communication officer for climate action network she used to support strategic campaigning in the Arab region which contributes to the overall vision of CANI and strategic priorities  around climate action works.

During her work, she earned a Multi-Arab and international Awards, for the journalistic work, such as the “2022-Media Freedom” award.

She is a certified trainer in media issues.

Maria-Àngels Roque is the Director of the Department of Cultures and Civil Society at the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) and director of the revue Quaderns de la Mediterrània.  Roque is dedicated to strengthening intercultural dialogue between both Mediterranean seashores since 2000. Since 2014, she is a founding member of the Euro-Mediterranean Women’s Foundation (EMWF).

As an anthropologist, she has conducted ethnographic research in rural areas with women’s issues in Spain and Morocco.

John Paul Grech is the Deputy Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean in charge of Social and Civil Affairs since September 2021.

His diplomatic career spans over 30 years of service during which he has served as Head of Mission in both bilateral and multilateral missions overseas.  In addition, he also held various positions within the Ministry of Foreign & European Affairs of the Republic of Malta, including that of Permanent Secretary.

He has served as ambassador of Malta to Germany, Poland and Belarus.  He also served as Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations Specialized Agencies in Geneva and Deputy Permanent Representative of Malta to the OSCE and UN Agencies in Vienna. Besides, he has been assigned duties as Special Envoy on behalf of the Government of Malta on a number of assignments.