
Our guest speaker for October is Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini, MBE, the founder and CEO of the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) in 2006.
Sanam has three decades of experience as a peace strategist working globally on conflicts, crises, violent extremism and peacebuilding with civil society, governments and the UN. Throughout her career, she has led groundbreaking initiatives in research, thought leadership, policy and practice relating to peacebuilding, human security and social cohesion. This includes being a civil society architect of the seminal UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security, director of the Women Waging Peace Policy Commission in 2002-2004 with design and delivery of the first multi-country research initiative on the evidence of women’s contributions to peace processes encapsulated in her book, Women Building Peace: What They Do, Why it Matters (Rienner, 2007).
In 2011 she was appointed the first Senior Expert on Gender and Inclusion by the UN’s Standby Team (SBT) of Mediation Experts working in Somalia, Libya, Syria and Sudan among other countries. Since 2018, she has been an adjunct Professor at the Columbia University School of International Public Affairs (SIPA). From 2020 to September 2022, Sanam served as Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Centre for Women, Peace and Security, working to deepen links between scholarship, policy and practice as part of the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. In 2024, Sanam became a Richard von Weizsacker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy. Sanam has served on numerous boards including the UK’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security and Prevention of Sexual Violence Board, the Commonwealth’s Panel of Experts on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), and the Women Mediators Across the Commonwealth Steering Committee.
Her media appearances include Channel 4 News, CNN’s Amanpour, and Al Jazeera. She has published numerous articles in Foreign Affairs, Le Monde Diplomatique and the UK’s Observer. Sanam is host of the podcast, If You Were in Charge: People, Power and Possibilities currently in its third season, with guests Abigail Disney, Steven Walt and Professor Dame EJ Milner-Gullner. She was the recipient of the 2014 Washington DC UN Association Perdita Huston Award for human rights and the 2016 Greeley Peace Scholar at the University of Massachusetts. Sanam was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2020 in recognition of her combined services to international peacebuilding and women’s rights. In 2022, she was the first Andrew Mellon Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, US.
Tentative schedule for the day:
9:30am - 10:45am - Registration, tea/coffee, Activity Leader and vendor tables
10:50am - Members to take their seats in the auditorium
11:00am - Introductions
11:10am - Guest Speaker
12:05pm - Q&A
12:30pm - Meeting conclusion
For any queries, contact Katy Cooke at programmes1@kcwc.org.uk