Samiera Zafar

Samiera Zafar holds a Master’s in Education Policy, and has recently completed an Executive Certificate program in International Development at Mc Gill’s Institute for Studies in International Development (ISID). She has a sound knowledge of public policy, gender and rights-based programs  based on her work as a  Policy Analyst at the Centre for Education Policy Development (South Africa). At CEPD, she undertook research; and monitoring  & evaluation  projects for the Electoral Institute for Southern Africa; provincial and national education departments; an ILO project and UNICEF’s South Africa country office. As Director: Research & Knowledge Management at PALAMA, Government of South Africa she participated in bench-marking and evaluating a suite of management & leadership programs for officials at all levels of the South African public service and in the launch of an open source virtual discussion forum for public officials participating in the Gender Mainstreaming Training Program. Whilst at PALAMA, she participated in the  development of a CIDA – funded capacity-building program for public sector management and leadership entities in Rwanda, Burundi and the Government of South Sudan & undertook a field visit to Rwanda.

Her continued collaboration with The Leadership Group since 2009 leads to mutual learning.TLG  leverage’s her extensive knowledge of  public policy, curriculum development and the generic and functional competencies needed by public officials within government departments to inform TLG’s program development & innovation. Additional, her years of experience within the not-for-profit sector in South Africa and more recently in Toronto provides us with useful insights into not-for-profit management. In her view, collaboration with TLG keeps her connected with an issue she is passionate about: Investing in people, work teams and leaders  and is an investment in her personal development as a manager.

Samiera currently works as a manager in the not-for profit sector in Toronto and maintains a sustained interest in  gender, human rights & international development.