Dr. Parichi is a qualified and experienced gender, peace and communication expert who has experience in providing technical support in prevention and management of conflict prevention and development programs. Her strengths also include strengthening organizational capacities in innovative programming, building and strengthening capacities in results-based programmes and research. She has worked as a facilitator, trainer, and researcher on issues of gender, media, social change, development and conflict transformation. Her experience as an academic and consultant with state, non-state, regional and international organizations is evidence she can work with diverse multi-cultural groups. As a gender and social inclusion expert, Dr. Parichi has worked with UN Women, UNICEF, UNESCO, and OXFAM among others.

A singer who empowers women through music, Walett Ourmar is the Founder and Leader of Tartit, an all-female Tuareg musical group in Mali who play music and sing for peace to empower other Turaeg women. The music of Tartit, meaning union or unity in the Tamasheq language, promotes the idea of unity among all Malians.

Ezabir Ali is a Commonwealth professional and Harvard Alumnae from Kashmir. In the course of her 25-year career, she has served in the public and non-profit sectors in Jammu and Kashmir. For more than two decades, she has done extensive work on the psycho-social healing and economic development of women in Kashmir.

She has set up SAMANBAL, which is a “safe inclusive story-telling spaces” for women across all divides to dialogue and build solidarity to improve relationships amongst women of three regions, who were deeply divided over a lengthy period of time. Ezabir Ali is the Founder/Secretary of EHSAAS, a Non-Governmental Policy group working on advocacy on rights of women in Jammu and Kashmir State.

Resources and articles:

• Women Mediators Across the Commonwealth
• Women Mediators: Bridging the Peace Gap
• Line of Control: The Other Side of Conflict in Kashmir
• Breaking shackles, she carves a niche for herself

Lantana has extensive experience working in Nigeria’s non-profit and peacebuilding sector leading several mediation efforts between pastoralists and farmers, communal violence, land disputes, etc. She has served as a mentor with the UN Wome Nigeria and co-founded and serve as the National Co-Coordinator of the Nigerian Women Mediators Network.

Lantana is a member of the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth and is a member of FemWise West Africa.

Connect with Lantana via LinkedIn.

Carolyne Ongalo is a highly experienced professional with over two decades of dedicated service. During her tenure at the National Council of Churches of Kenya from 1999 to 2020, she managed offices in Nairobi and various regions, making significant contributions. In 2022 and 2023, as a Programme Coordinator at the Kenya Young Men Christian Association (YMCA), Carolyne played a pivotal role in implementing programs focused on youth, children, and women, including Resolution 2250 YPS. Her versatile skill set encompassed administrative support, event coordination, and donor-funded program management, with a particular focus on conflict resolution and women’s empowerment. She actively engaged in training initiatives and regional networks, leaving an indelible mark on peace-building, gender equality, and community development in Kenya. Carolyne Ongalo is a respected figure known for her enduring commitment to positive change within Kenya and beyond.

Lucy Dlama Yunana is the Founder of Women in the New Nigerian (WINN). She has participated and coordinated various dialogue and mediations sessions on the de-radicalization, rehabilitation, and reintegration of repentant AOGs into communities in Northeast Nigeria. She has also coordinated the formation of peace management committees and disarmament programmes in Borno state. Lucy has worked in five local governments across Borno State that were hard to reach areas due to the challenges the Boko Haram insurgency poses to those areas. Those were areas you find young girls that were being adopted by this Boko Haram and she worked around reintegrating the abductees into the society.

Carolyne Ongalo is a highly experienced professional with over two decades of dedicated service. During her tenure at the National Council of Churches of Kenya from 1999 to 2020, she managed offices in Nairobi and various regions, making significant contributions. In 2022 and 2023, as a Programme Coordinator at the Kenya Young Men Christian Association (YMCA), Carolyne played a pivotal role in implementing programs focused on youth, children, and women, including Resolution 2250 YPS. Her versatile skill set encompassed administrative support, event coordination, and donor-funded program management, with a particular focus on conflict resolution and women’s empowerment. She actively engaged in training initiatives and regional networks, leaving an indelible mark on peace-building, gender equality, and community development in Kenya. Carolyne Ongalo is a respected figure known for her enduring commitment to positive change within Kenya and beyond.

Uduak Udofia is a Certified Mediator of African Union (member of FEMWISE AFRICA). She is listed on the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (West Africa Roster) and the UNWomen (Nigeria) Roster of women Mediators. She is a Clingendael (The Netherlands Institute of International Relations) trained Negotiator She founded Women in Mediation Network (WiMNet) which builds the capacity of women on Women Peace and Security (WPS) UNSCR 1325 Pillars, mediation and Peacebuilding. Her experience spans deployment to support AU Mission in South Sudan (AUMISS) and Ethiopian Women Peace Coalition in their post conflict recovery engagement. Also implementing community Peacebuildng FCDO projects in Nigeria.

Caryn Dasah is a dynamic youth and social justice activist with a decade of experience. She passionately champions women’s rights, gender equality, and the end of violence against women and girls, earning her a place on the Global Beijing 25 youth task force. As an award-winning peace builder, she tackles the crisis in the North West and South West regions, creating initiatives like the “HerPlace Project” to engage grassroots women in peacebuilding. Caryn is committed to local solutions for ending injustices and runs the “Healing Invisible Wounds Project” to provide psycho-social support to survivors of violence in armed conflict. She’s also involved in empowering grassroots communities and monitoring human rights abuses. Furthermore, she’s been elected as the General Coordinator of the Cameroon Women’s Peace Movement (CAWOPEM), representing women-led civil society organizations across the country, with the goal of involving Cameroonian women in the peacebuilding process.

Website: Hope Advocates Africa

Resources and articles:

• Cameroon’s Women’s Rights Activist
• I Am Generation Equality