Speaker: Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, LSE

Chair: Professor Nina Caspersen, University of York

As the Founder and Executive Director of ICAN Sanam Naraghi Anderlini has over two decades of experience as a peace strategist working globally on conflicts, crises and violent extremism with a mix of civil society, governments and the UN.

At ICAN she spearheads the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) comprising independent women-led organizations active in 40 countries globally, preventing violence and promoting peace, rights and pluralism. Under her leadership ICAN has developed the multi-donor Innovative Peace Fund (IPF) to channel resources to local women-led organizations preventing violent extremism (PVE) and peace building. Between 2015-18 the IPF disbursed over $2,000,000 in 26 countries.

In 2000, she was a civil society leader and drafter of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security and in 2011 she was the first Senior Expert on Gender and Inclusion on the UN’s Mediation Standby Team, working on Somalia, Libya and Syria among other cases.

Her current appointments include serving on the Steering Board of the UK’s National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security, the Commonwealth’s Panel of Experts on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), UNDP’s Civil Society Advisory Council and as adjunct professor at Columbia University. She was the 2014 recipient of the UN Association Perdita Huston Award for human rights and the 2016 Greeley Peace Scholar at the University of Massachusetts.

In December 2019, Ms. Anderlini received the Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) award in recognition for her work and for services to international peacebuilding and women’s rights.
She speaks four languages and holds an MPhil in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University. Iranian by birth, Sanam is a UK citizen, and has twin daughters.