Yasmine Sherif is the Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), a global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crisis, established at the World Humanitarian Summit and hosted by UNICEF.
A human rights lawyer with 30 years of experience in international affairs, including 20 years in management & leadership, she graduated with an LLM from Stockholm University in 1987 and joined the United Nations in 1988.
She has served in New York, Geneva and in crisis-affected countries in Africa, Asia, Balkans and the Middle East. She has in-depth knowledge and first-hand experience of the UN humanitarian, development and political system, crisis/post-crisis and the humanitarian-development nexus. She has also served with NGOs and as Adjunct Professor at Long Island University.
In 1992, she led the investigation into political prisoners during the UN held-elections in Cambodia (UNTAC), resulting in the release of 20 political prisoners. In the mid-1990’s, she led the first repatriation of Bosnian refugees for UNHCR, post-Dayton Peace Accords. At the end of 1990s, she led the establishment of UN OCHA’s Protection of Civilians agenda.
In 2000’s, she established the UN’s largest rule of law programme in Sudan and access to justice for girls and women in Darfur. In the mid-2000’s, she led the establishment and rapid expansion of UNDP’s Global Rule of Law, Justice & Security work in over 40 crisis countries, increasing resources to US$450 million.
As the Deputy Special Representative for UNDP/PAPP, she oversaw development in crisis. She increased annual delivery by 50% in 2011 and led the development of a new strategy and resource mobilization at $180 million.
Yasmine Sherif is a public speaker and author of The Case for Humanity: An Extraordinary Session, launched at the UN in New York in 2015 – now a best-seller at the UN bookshop.