Lesley Abdela, MBE, has more than 30 years’ experience working on gender equality and human rights in 50 countries, with national and provincial governments, international organizations, media outlets, NGOs, think tanks, and political leaders. This has included in post-conflict regions: Iraq,  Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia Hercegovina, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, Aceh Indonesia, Cyprus.

Ms. Abdela is the co-founder and Senior Partner of UK based Shevolution Consultancy, which has worked with The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), USAID, The British Council, UK FCDO, The European Union (EU), the European Commission, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida,) The Inter-Parliamentary Union, The Media Diversity Institute, CARE International, and UN Agencies.

Lesley Abdela has a specific background in women’s economic empowerment, women peace and security, gender and the media, women and climate change, combating violence against women, and women’s political participation.

She has provided technical advice, recommendations and training on gender and social inclusion issues to ensure women’s and girls’ human rights, gender-responsive planning and gender budgeting are adequately analysed and fully integrated (mainstreamed) into development cooperation programmes.

She has helped governments and NGOs develop training and policies to prevent and address sexual harassment, action plans to combat and monitor hate speech and disinformation campaigns. Final beneficiaries included women, girls, men, boys, LGBTQI+.  She has led trainings and international workshops for journalists and editors on non-sexist media coverage of political elections, gender-based violence, and sex-trafficking.

Ms. Abdela has authored numerous manuals, contributed chapters to books,and written  articles on gender equality. Her articles have been published in leading U.S. and Western European newspapers including The Times, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. She served as a researcher and consultant to the BBC on radio and TV documentaries related to women in business and politics.

Ms. Abdela is a recipient of numerous awards for distinguished service to advancing gender equality and human rights, from HM Queen Elizabeth 11, The European Institute for Gender Equality, the United States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. She was voted by New Statesman magazine readers 34th out of ‘50 Heroes of Our Time’. She currently serves as a Member of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Gender Advisory Experts Panel, and as Associate Consultant to the Nordic Consulting Group (NCG) Sweden, and Member of the NCG Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) Gender Experts Help Desk team. At the time of the transition from Communism to Democracy, Lesley Abdela was advisor on women’s participation in  democracy  to Project Liberty, headquartered at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.  Project Liberty offered advice, training, and assistance to help with the transition to open, democratic societies in Central and Eastern European countries. For example, meetings sponsored by Project Liberty were held in the Polish cities of Warsaw, Posnan and Lodz to expand networks of women in politics and business in the emerging democracies.