CV of Dr. Fouzia Saeed

Ph.D. (Education), University of Minnesota, USA, 1987
With graduate coursework in Women’s Studies

MS (Design) University of Minnesota, USA, 1985

BS (General Home Economics) University of Minnesota, USA, 1983

BS (Home Economics), University of Peshawar, Pakistan, 1979

Gender & Development, Human Rights Based Community Development, Vulnerable communities and Children’s rights, Policy analysis and formulation, Education, Civil Society Organizational Capacity Building.

• Creative and dynamic leadership
• Policy analysis with gender perspective
• Project formulation and proposal writing
• Team organization skills
• Professional facilitation and training competence

International Leadership Award
presented by University of Minnesota, USA 2008

Distinguished International Alumni Award
presented by the University of Minnesota, USA for ten years contribution to the field of education and the women’s movement in Pakistan, April, 1998

Ethel L. Parker Fellow Award
American Home Economics Association, 1986

Quaid-e-Azam Overseas Educational Award
International Scholarship, tuition and stipend for six years, awarded by the Government of Pakistan, 1979 – 1987

Gold Medal of Academic Excellence (Top Graduate)
University of Peshawar, Pakistan, 1979

Academic Distinction Scholarships, 1974 – 1977

Executive Director, National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (Lok Virsa)
10 February, 2015 – 2018

Chief Administrator and head of substantive programing.
Devised strategy for the Institute to play a national level role to preserve, promote, document traditional culture. Developed and strengthened the governance structure of the Institute and began to build collaborative ties with other national and international institutions.

Assistant Professor, Affiliate, School of Policy Studies, George Mason University, Washington DC
1st September, 2013 – 2014

Research scholar position for doing senior level research on cultural and other policies in Pakistan and other countries.

Pakistan Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington DC
1st September, 2014 – 2015

Selected at this prestigious position representing Pakistan. I am conducting research on Pakistan’s history of people, specifically women. I am documenting women’s movements and the socio-political context. I am also presenting a positive image of Pakistan sharing our culture, diversity and pluralism of our nation and political reforms in numerous public speaking opportunities in the most renowned Universities and forums.

Visiting Fellow, National Endowment for Democracy Washington, D.C.
October 2012 – May 2013

I was selected as a Fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy because of my success in building civil society engagement with the government in Pakistan. During my Fellowship, I have focused on understanding the functioning of the US government and the role that civil society has played in promoting positive legislation for women in America. In addition, I have been invited to speak at various engagements in Washington, as well as Salt Lake City, Palo Alto and San Francisco. I have contributed in creating a positive image of Pakistan and have developed international linkages to further promote our culture and our politics.

Member, National Commission on the Status of Women
February 2009- March 2012

Appointed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan for a three year term as an Executive Committee member; responsibilities included strategizing and steering the Commission in its role as the major watch dog body for women’s rights in the country.
Member of Legal Committee: work in this committee included drafting a new bill for registering marriages and divorces of Hindu minority community. There was no law for the purpose. Drafting and pursuing passage of an amended bill for marriage and divorce act for Christian minorities of the country. I drafted new legislation and amended old legislation for domestic violence. Effectively lobbied for the passage of several pro-women legislation that women parliamentarians initiated.

Chairperson, National Implementation Watch Committee
March 2010- March 2012

I was appointed as the chairperson of a high level Committee formed to implement the anti-sexual harassment legislation in the country on the instructions of the Prime Minister. Earlier, in 2009, he had named me as a member of the National Commission on the Status of Women, which is a national level watchdog body for the women’s rights in the country. This Committee was formed on the platform of the Commission with senior members from the Government, Private sector, media, international donors and civil society. The responsibilities of the chair included strategizing for effective implementation, coordination with all the major stake holders in the country and action to get the implementation mechanisms in place. Because of its effectivity, this was seen as a precedent.

Chairperson, The Folklore Society of Pakistan (2004 to 2012)

Headed this Cultural organization for the last ten years. The organization was established in 1989. I was a founding member and remained active in its mission of protecting the rights of folk artists and promoting folk culture. I initiated a movement to restore the folk musical traditions among communities that inherit this rich tradition as a part of their family traditions. I focused on Manganhaar community and later on Bhill. A close engagement with people of these communities resulted in grooming them to return to their original heritage of Marwari singing as opposed to Bollywood songs for their livelihood. The Ustad’s were encouraged to help out the younger generation and prepare best ten students every year for an open contest which we promised to hold in Karachi. Several Baithaks were facilitated. The First grand Manganhaar Music Festival was organized in 2003. In addition to the competition we had the most celebrated singers sing in front of a mass audience comprised of a cross section of Karachi with extensive media coverage. I with my team was able to rejuvenate this form of singing over a period of seven years, not only nationally but internationally.

Eight audio folk music albums were released nationwide. In addition, the following videos of Manganhaar Music Festivals were released in the market nationwide. I with one other colleague lead the organization and hosted all the Festivals myself.

• First Manganhaar Festival Part I & II
• Second Manganhaar Festival part I & II
• Third Manganhaar Festival part I & II
• Fourth Manganhaar Festival
• Fifth Manganhaar & Bhill Festival
• A special Music Festival of Manganhaar with cultural context (In English)

Two booklets one on the folklore of Manganhaar and one on Bhill were prepared by me based on my research on these communities. An Educational program for school children that used the booklets was very effective.

Chairperson, Mehergarh – A Center for Learning (www.mehergarh.org)
November 2004-2014

Principal partner and Chairperson of an institution focused on promoting culture and building capacity of youth and other leaders of the social movement aimed at issues surrounding human rights activism and pluralistic values, especially those related to women and minority communities. The approach taken is indigenous, rooted in our century’s old folklore, traditional culture and pluralistic values of this land. Developed a nationally acclaimed youth leadership program for Gender, Human Rights and Democracy. This two-month intensive training program has produced thousands of competent leaders among our youth and are expected to be in significant positions of power. The training modules on gender issues, advocacy and campaigning, strengthening democracy and political participation have been most successful.

Conducted over 50 trainings on various aspects of Gender embedded in Mehergarh’s indigenous and cultural approach for young men and women, government professionals and private sector managements. Community leaders from rural areas of all provinces participate complimenting a pluralistic perspective of the courses

Advanced level courses offered on:

• Bringing Change Through Cultural Activism
• Democracy and Human Rights: Building Strategies
• Countering Extremism Building Strategies
• Pro Women Legislation
• Struggle and legislation for Sexual harassment (multiple offering)
• Devolution and Democracy

Mobilized Women leaders from the grass roots and provide mentoring for improved leadership embedded in their own culture. From 2005, we have maintained a strong commitment to EVAW and also the plight of Hindu women in slavery in southern Pakistan. Advocated a focus on youth, women and minorities in government policy, advocacy for gender friendly changes in government legislation and regulations, training young leaders, especially young women for active citizenship and civil society initiatives and encouraging the application of rights-based gender approaches in grass roots organizations.

Lead the Advocacy Unit of Mehergarh, advocating and lobbying with the parliament and other stakeholders, policy and legislation for women. Conducted intense lobbying for:

• Domestic violence bill,
• Acid and burn crime bill
• Anti women cultural practices bill
• Women in destitute bill
• National Commission on the Status of Women bill
• Regular campaigns through mainstream media on gender issues.

Secretariat Director, AASHA (Alliance Against Sexual Harassment)(www.AASHA.org.pk)
2001-December 2011

I created, led and managed AASHA, an alliance of NGOs working against sexual harassment, beginning in 2001. I played a key role in building its institutional capacity, making it into a nationwide movement and taking a lead in developing and propagating policy level changes. AASHA developed an anti- sexual harassment policy and encouraged the private sector institutions to adopt it. The number of organizations and institutions with a sexual harassment policy went from zero to three hundred in three years. Beginning in March 2008, I worked closely with the Parliamentarians to finalize legislation making sexual harassment a punishable offense in the civil service and private sector. The legislation was approved by the Cabinet in November 2008, passed by the National Assembly in November 2009, passed by the Senate in January 2010 and signed by the President on 9 March 2010.

In this ten years process I gained the experience to mobilize working with women ranging from landless farmers to Executive directors of private sector companies. I engaged and brought on board labour unions, private sector managements, chambers of commerce, relevant government departments, politicians, development organizations and other stakeholders. In addition media was engaged steadily which not only included awareness campaigns but also education and sensitizing media professionals on the issue.

Country Director, Action Aid Pakistan
March 2001 –October 2004
Action Aid is a human rights-based non-government organization working in 30 countries. As head of the Pakistan country office I was responsible for setting the overall vision and strategic direction of the annual $2 million program and its day-to-day management. The program is composed of both grass roots organizational development work in thirteen remote rural areas of the country as well as policy and advocacy work with provincial and national government, private sector and other key decision makers. (Please view the Strategic Framework on our website for program details.) My management responsibilities included goal-setting, guidance and capacity building for 70 staff and over 30 partner organizations located all over the country. My position also required active involvement in international campaigns and programs. More detail is given below:

Programmatic Responsibilities
I led the process of developing a Country Strategy Plan (CSP) in a participatory manner from a human rights perspective. This entailed working with several levels of civil society, grass roots level community representatives and strategic partners at the national and international level. Policy analysis and policy development was also part of the work. Among the key program areas where I made significant personal contributions are: creating a national movement on sexual harassment in the workplace, creating a coalition of small farmers, and promoting a major new program on cultural action for change.

Management Responsibilities
Upon taking up my duties, I focused on developing a competent and committed team of senior management. Together, we restructured the office to ensure that the organization was efficiently organized and positioned to achieve the objectives we identified in the CSP. With their help I was able to change the entire organizational environment from one where staff saw themselves doing a job, to one where they became trained activists and responsible citizens. The entire staff has become involved in all the major initiatives and campaigns. From senior management to office drivers, everyone is involved in contributing directly to the joint efforts. I also successfully decentralized the organization, setting up effective provincial offices in Lahore and Karachi.

International Responsibilities
Twenty-five percent of my time was committed for international work. I took on the regional thematic responsibility for education and ran the global campaign on education by strategizing on the most effective approach to lobbying for the Dakar goals, and promoted the Millennium Development Goal structure as an underpinning of the global program. Later, I took on the responsibility for Gender in the Asia Region and connected the country and regional initiatives with the organization’s global work. In addition, I was actively involved with the ActionAid global policy group in defining the corporate stance on critical issues.

Head of the Gender Unit, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
March 1996 – May 1998.
Created and managed a UNDP Program Unit focusing on gender disparities in Pakistan. Responsibilities include managing the Gender Unit, designing managing and backstopping catalytic projects and supporting policy initiatives. I developed the first Country Office gender strategy for UNDP and designed specific projects that created a precedent in the donor community for rights based strategic interventions.

National Officer, United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM
March 1995 – March 1996.
Responsibilities included initiating, managing & backstopping programs related to women’s issues, lobbying & advocacy with the Government and networking with NGOs and other donors. Also, continued the preparatory work for the Beijing conference under UNIFEM.

Coordinator, Fourth World Conference on Women
October 1994 – March 1995.
Coordinated eight international donor agencies in preparing the Pakistan Delegation for the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing. Coordinated with the Ministry of Women’s Development and NGOs all over the country in developing a joint agenda for the Conference. Requested to shift to UNIFEM to complete the work.

Programme Officer, Education, Aga Khan Foundation
October 1993 – 1994.
Main responsibilities included administering, monitoring & backstopping the $6 million portfolio of AKF education projects all over Pakistan, particularly in the Northern Areas.

Deputy Director, Research, National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage
December 1987 – August 1993
Managed a staff of twelve (4 Program Officers, 3 Researchers, 2 Library staff and 3 support staff). Coordinated the Research Program focusing on women in traditional culture.

Mehergarh 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008

Designed and conducted an annual eight-week residential training program for young men and women from three religions to become leaders of the future in human rights advocacy and activism.

GTZ 2007-2008 (Intermittent)
Developed a strategy to address the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace and in educational institutions. This is a part of a gender mainstreaming project with the objective of opening opportunities for women in all sectors of society. Conducted training of trainers who would conduct awareness sessions on the issue. Prepared a short film on sexual harassment in Dari for wide dissemination in the country. The assignment includes conducting training for researchers and supporting them in research design to undertake a comprehensive study on gender discrimination and sexual harassment in Afghanistan.

GTZ September 2006
Developed a training program for senior citizens of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Punjab, Pakistan to build their capacity in human rights specifically on women’s rights and children’s rights. A series of trainings were conducted for this group.

GTZ November 2006
Trained a group of media professionals from television, radio and newspapers on gender issues, in Lahore, Pakistan.
Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) July/August, 2003. Developed a manual for the Pacific region on Gender sensitization and awareness. Adapted the Manual for three sub-regions of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Fiji 2001
Designed and conducted a Refresher Training for a pool of gender trainers who have been trained by me earlier. Designed and conducted a training of trainers for a new group of senior civil servants in Gender orientation and Gender sensitization. Fiji,

United Nations Development Program (UNDP), June- August 2000
Established Gender SensitivityTraining Program for the Ministry of Women’s Gender Training Unit in Fiji. Conducted Gender Sensitivity trainings for senior Civil Service staff, designed and conducted a Training of Trainers for the Line Ministry staff to conduct Gender Sensitivity training in their own Ministries. Fiji.

Action Aid 2001-2004
Established the training program for ActionAid to build the capacity of the fellow NGOs and smaller civil society groups. The following Training packages were developed and conducted in Multiple identities and stereotyping, Gender sensitization, Political Education, Addressing Sexual Harassment.

Ateneo de Naga University Naga City, Philippines November 1999 – February 2000
Designed and delivered courses on crisis counselor preparation, Leadership Skills and Gender Orientation for faculty and students.

University of Bohol, Philippines July 1999
Designed and conducted a Training session on Communication skills and an intensive session on Violence Against Women for the faculty of.

Pakistan Television, March 1998
Co-facilitated two Gender Sensitization Workshops for Pakistan Television Corporation producers and writers. .

UNDP Pakistan, 1996 – 1998
Developed and conducted a staff capacity building training program and facilitated a series of Gender project formulation workshops.

Pakistan, 1990 – 1998
Developed and conducted several (more than 20) self-exploration and Gender Sensitizing Workshops and Crisis Counseling courses for Pakistani NGOs. .

German Technical Cooperation (GTZ)
Swiss Development Cooperation and Royal Embassy of Netherlands 1993-1994 Developed and conducted an extensive series of Gender Sensitization Training for project staff.

Trainer at the National coalition for Battered women for intervention in family violence situations, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 1986.

Undertook assignments as a gender consultant for several international development agencies in the area of Gender and Development, Community Mobilization and other Social Sector Development from 1988 – 1994, 1998 – 2001and again starting in December 2004. During these periods, I worked variously with: UNDP, German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Dutch Development Agency, Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), Overseas Development Agency (ODA, now called DFID), United Kingdom, UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), United States Aid for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank.

UNDP Afghanistan January 2008
Undertook management review and capacity building of the Training and Advocacy Department of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. Developed and introduced team building and advocacy tools. Conducted three workshops: Strategic Planning, Developing Advocacy Tools, and Team Building.

UNDP Afghanistan November 2007
Organized and delivered a gender mainstreaming training course for project managers. Reviewed five UNDP projects and recommended ways to initiate mainstreaming practices into their on-going work.

UNDP Afghanistan December 2006
Developed a Training Strategy for the Training Department of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, government of Afghanistan. This included a needs assessment of government officials in various ministries from a gender perspective and capacity assessment of the MOWA trainers. The strategy was developed in close coordination with other strategies of MOWA.

Net Aid September 2005
Designed and supervised an evaluation of grassroots girls education project in Sindh Pakistan.

Family Planning Association of Pakistan September 2005
Developed proposal on domestic violence for International planned parenthood fund

International Labour Office (ILO) May 2005
Technical Resource person for a strategic exercise for developing legislation on sexual harassment in China

Care Int’l May 2005
Resource person for a seminar series in USA, to launch Pakistan Development Council established by Care

Swiss Development Corporation March 2005
Facilitated the strategic development exercise for the next five years for the organization, ensuring a gender and rights focus

Swiss Development Corporation December 2004
Evaluated a long term SDC funded program on youth empowerment and communication

United Nations Development Program’s Asia Pacific Regional Program – New York 1999
Evaluated the UNDP Regional Gender Program being implemented in 11 countries of Asia. Gave detailed future strategic direction for the program.

United Nations Development Program – Cambodia December/January 2001
Conducted a gender review of the programs, policy and management structure of UNDP Cambodia and its related partners.

UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) 1994
Country Coordinator for developing a Regional Policy Framework for Women in Agriculture for World Conference in Beijing. Lead a consultative process at a National level with relevant experts and prepared the Country Paper as the input from Pakistan to this Regional initiative. Participated in Cairo based FAO regional consultations of all the country coordinators to come up with the Regional Policy framework.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) February 1993.
Baseline study for a pilot project in the area of Rural Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) October 1992.
Germany – Present Status and Future Potential of Women’s Programme in Idara-e-Kissan, Patttoki Livestock Project, Lahore.

German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), January 1992.
Facilitation and resource person in Goal Oriented Planning Workshop (ZOP) for Technical Training Centre (TTC) for Women, Lahore.

Dutch Development Agency August 1990
Backstopping and training For Women’s section Head of Dairy Training Centre, Peshawar.

German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) December 1991.
Future Direction for Women’s Programmes in the Pak – German Integrated Rural Development Project (IRDP), Mardan

German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) November 1991
Member of Evaluation Mission for Technical Training Centre (TTC) for Women, Lahore.

Swiss Development Cooperation November 1991
Gender team member on Switzerland Planning mission for phase IV of Kalam Integrated Development project (KIDP), focused on Community Development, Swat, September.

Overseas Development Agency (ODA)January 1991
United Kingdom – Review of WID activities in the Pak German Integrated Rural Development Project (IRDP), Mardan.

German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) June 1990
Women’s Activities in GTZ Self – Help Project in Balochistan

German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) September 1989
Conducted study of Women’s Role in Forestry in Mansehra

World Bank March 1989
Water and Sanitation in the Social Sector in Azad Jammu & Kashmir.

Land O’ Lakes, Minnesota, USA September 1988
Female Participation in Dairy Production in Punjab,

I have been extensively involved in recent World Social Forum events. I led a delegation of 25 people to the WSF in Mumbai where I. conducted one session on Violence Against Women in South Asia and one session on sexual harassment. I enabled a large group of Pakistan women from the Fisherfolk community and Tenants movement to attend the WSF regional forum in Hyderabad. I spoke on Women and Peace in South Asia.

Worked extensively on issues of Violence Against Women and its effects on women and their children. Other than crisis counseling and sensitization on the issues, given numerous talks on the subject of Violence Against Women in general, Domestic Violence, Rape, Incest, Violent Rituals, Burning Brides, Verbal Abuse, Prostitution etc. at a national level including papers at conferences, sessions at grass root level and television programs. 1983 – 1998

Founded and managed an NGO, Bedari, on women’s issues, specifically related to violence. This NGO has the first ever Crisis Center in Pakistan. Served formally on its management board for five years. Raised awareness on issues of violence through numerous activities. Worked on Children’s rights. Set up the very first program in Pakistan that focused on child sexual abuse. Later that program culminated into several different organizations that are still working on that issue. 1991-1998.

Actively participated in setting up of the Government of Pakistan’s first Crisis Center and served on its Advisory/Management Committee. Islamabad, Pakistan. December to May, 1998

Intervention Volunteer at St. Paul Intervention Centre for domestic Violence. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 1986 – 87.

Advocate and intervention person for Domestic Abused Project, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 1985.

Facilitator, Intercultural communication Workshop, a 4-credit course offered by the University of Minnesota and designed to increase the understanding of various aspects of different cultures through the participation of international students, 1980 – 1983.

Volunteer Councilor for Crisis Intervention at the Chrysalis Crisis Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. 1983-1987.

Organized and led a group through Minnesota International Centre for international women, who perceived themselves as future leaders in their professions on their return to their home countries, 1979 – 1980.

Visiting Professor at St. Scholastica College, Manila, Philippines. 1999-2000.
Visiting Professor at Ateneo de Naga University, Naga, Philippines. 2000
Visiting Lecturer, Quaid-e-Azam, Islamabad and Karachi Universities. Pakistan, 1994 -1997.
Visiting Professor of Folklore, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan – Fall 1988.
Instructor, College of Education, University of Minnesota, U.S.A – Summer 1988

Women in Bondage,

A booklet and video on case studies of women living in bondage in interior Sindh, Pakistan.
Published by Mehergarh, January, 2007

Taboo! The Hidden Culture of a Red Light Area,

Oxford University Press, 2001.
This is an ethnography of the traditional red light area in Lahore. It reflects upon the socialized gender roles in Pakistan and questions the basics of patriarchy. The original English version has opened national dialog on this subject. Urdu, Hindi and Marathi translations have been also published. A translation in Arabic is in process.

Women in folk theatre

Lok Virsa Publishing House, Islamabad, 1991.
“The queen of Hearts – Bali Jati”, Newsline Karachi, 1991.
“Prostitution in Shahi Mohalla”,

Women’s World

Islamabad. December, 1991.

Heritage ’90

(Co-editor),

Lok Virsa Research Journal

1990.
“Folk Dances of Pakistan”,

Heritage ‘90

Islamabad, 1990.

Violence Against Women

(Editor). Islamabad, 1990.