Secretariat
Veronica Brown
Coordinator of the Secretariat
Veronica Brown is a Panamanian and Peruvian feminist and human rights advocate working at the intersections of gender justice, inclusion, and sustainable development. As Secretariat Coordinator for the Women’s Major Group, she supports collaboration between Organising Partners, strategic advocacy, fundraising, and feminist engagement within global sustainable development processes. Over the years, she has worked with organisations including Women Deliver, Equimundo, the ACTION Global Health Secretariat, and the World Bank. Her work is grounded in anti-racist, feminist, and rights-based approaches, with a strong commitment to decolonising ways of working and expanding civic space for girls, women, and gender-diverse people.
About
The Secretariat supports the overall coordination and strategic functioning of the Women’s Major Group, including facilitating collaboration between Organising Partners, supporting strategic direction and advocacy processes, coordinating communications and engagement, and supporting fundraising and organisational development.
Get in touch with the Organising Partners (OPs): contact@womensmajorgroup.org
Current Facilitating Team
The WMG is facilitated by a team of Organizing Partners at the global and regional levels and is supported by a small secretariat.
Cham Perez
Center for Women’s Resources (CWR), Philippines
Asia Regional Organising Partner
Cham Perez is the Executive Director of the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR). She leads CWR’s work in supporting grassroots women’s movement-building through research, education, and advocacy programmes focused on economic empowerment, socio-cultural rights, and political participation. She also coordinates regional and global engagement processes linked to the 2030 Agenda through APRCEM and the Women’s Major Group.
Daniele Ramiaramanana
Association pour le Développement de l’Entomoforesterie et la Sauvegarde de l’Environnement (ADESE), Madagascar
Francophone Africa Organising Partner
Daniele Ramiaramanana is a Malagasy research agronomist and gender specialist with over 20 years of experience advancing gender equality in natural resource management, forestry, and climate action. She works on gender-responsive policy advocacy, capacity building, and inclusive approaches to sustainable forest management and climate finance. Through her engagement with the Women’s Major Group and related forest and climate platforms, she has contributed to global policy processes while supporting women’s leadership, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable resource management initiatives in Madagascar.
Foteini Papagioti
International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), Greece
Global Organising Partner Near the UN
Foteini Papagioti is a feminist policy and advocacy expert working at the intersection of gender equality, human rights, and sustainable development. As Director of Policy and Advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), she works to advance evidence-based feminist policy engagement and strengthen advocacy efforts linked to the 2030 Agenda and global gender justice processes. She has extensive experience supporting civil society engagement in multilateral spaces and advancing intersectional approaches to social justice and equality.
Inas Miloud
RESURJ, Libya
Global South Organising Partner
Inas Miloud is an indigenous feminist activist. She is the former Lead Coordinator of 1325 Network in Libya, and Former Indigenous Senior Fellow at the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples. She is the co-founder and currently Co-executive Director of Tamazight Women’s Movement, an intersectional organization that works to address gender, youth and indiegnous peoples inequalities in Libya. Her works have been particularly focused on gender, peace and security, militarization, indigenous issues, and intersectionality.
María Inés Re
Red de Salud de Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe (RSMLAC), Argentina
Latin America and the Caribbean Organising Partner
María Inés Re is an Argentine feminist and social policy advocate with extensive experience in gender, health justice, and sustainable development. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network (RSMLAC), where she coordinates the Health Justice Programme. Since 2015, she has been actively engaged in regional policy advocacy and civil society participation processes linked to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. María Inés currently serves as the Women’s Major Group Organising Partner for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Nalini Singh
Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM), Fiji
Pacific SIDS Regional Organising Partner
Nalini Singh is a feminist leader and women’s rights advocate from Fiji with extensive experience advancing gender equality, movement-building, and women’s political participation in the Pacific region. Through her work with the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, she supports advocacy, leadership development, and policy engagement to strengthen women’s rights and social justice across Pacific Small Island Developing States.
Shamala Chandrasekaran
Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW), Malaysia
Global Organising Partner Near the UN
Shamala Chandrasekaran is the Programme Lead at the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), leading and mobilizing regional and global advocacy initiatives within multilateral spaces alongside ARROW’s partners including to accelerate the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. She brings more than 12 years of experience in strategic program management, proposal development, and multi-stakeholder leadership focused on SRHR, gender equality, and harm reduction. Before joining ARROW, Shamala was a National Programme Manager overseeing technical support and performance monitoring for civil society organizations. She has also worked closely with the Ministry of Health Malaysia on community-based health interventions for key populations and has co-authored multiple sectoral publications.
Umba Zalira
RESURJ, Malawi
Global South Organising Partner
Umba Zalira is a Pan African feminist based in Malawi. She has over 10 years’ experience working in the development sector with a focus on sexual reproductive health for adolescent girls and young women. She has led the designing & implementation of national programs focused on youth SRHR, community mobilization, safeguarding and GBV prevention & response. She is passionate about community, movements and story telling.
Wambui Esther Kimani
Zamara Foundation, Kenya
Anglophone Africa Organising Partner
Wambui Esther Kimani is a Kenyan feminist advocate and founder of the Zamara Foundation, working to advance gender equality, women’s leadership, and economic justice. Her work focuses on strengthening women’s participation in decision-making processes, promoting social accountability, and supporting community-led approaches to sustainable development and rights-based advocacy.
SUPPORTING FEMINIST COLLECTIVE ACTION
The Organising Partners help sustain the Women’s Major Group through coordination, care work, facilitation, and movement-building across regions and themes. The role is rooted in supporting members’ collective engagement and strengthening feminist collaboration within global policy spaces. Learn more about the role in the Terms of Reference.
Former Facilitating Team Members
The WMG is facilitated by a team of Organizing Partners at the global and regional levels and is supported by a small secretariat.
Alessandra Nilo is the WMG Latin America and the Caribbean Organizing Partner, and the Co-founder and General Coordinator at GESTOS, a civil society organisation created in 1993 in Brazil, guaranteeing the Human Rights of people living with HIV and AIDS by providing legal support and redressal through injunctions and judgments, which today are even part of the list of jurisprudence on the theme Law and AIDS.
Oluwatoyin (Toyin) Chukwudozie is the WMG Anglophone Africa Regional Organizing Partner and the Executive Director of Education as a Vaccine (EVA), based in Abuja, Nigeria. EVA has 20 years of experience implementing projects that advance the right to health and freedom from all forms of violence of children, adolescents and young people, particularly women and girls.
Bette Levy is the WMG Global Organising Partner and a UN Representative for Soroptimist International (SI) since 2011, a global volunteer movement with a network of around 72,000 club members in 121 countries advocating for human rights and gender equality. At the heart of SI’s advocacy is its work across seven UN Centres, where their UN representatives ensure that the voices of women and girls are heard. 
Valentina Bodrug-Lungu is the WMG Europe and Central Asia Co-Organizing Partner, from the Republic of Moldova, and is the President of GENDER-CENTER, a non-governmental organisation working for gender equality promotion in society trough information, education and communication.
Almudena Rodriguez is the WMG Europe and Central Asia Co-Organizing Parter, from Catalonia & Spain, and is the International Advocacy Coordinator at L’ Associació de Drets Sexuals I Reproductius, a non-governmental organisation working on SRHR. Focusing on promoting and facilitating the awareness, prevention and education of society in the field of sexual and reproductive health.
Sehnaz Kiymaz Bahceci is the Coordinator to the WMG Secretariat. She is is a feminist activist and nonformal facilitator, working on international mechanisms and processes for gender equality since 2004, and a member of WMG since 2013. She greatly enjoys collaborating with and learning from the feminists of WMG.
Priscilla Achakpa is the WMG Africa Organizing Partner and the Executive Director of Women Environmental Programme (WEP) Nigeria, an NGO founded by a group of grassroots women in Nigeria that addresses the gender injustices on issues relating to environment, economic and social rights of women, children and youths in the society.
Eleanor Blomstrom is a WMG Global Organizing Partner and the Program Director/ Head of Office of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, a global women’s advocacy organization working for a just world that promotes and protects human rights, gender equality and the integrity of the environment.
Sivananthi Thanenthiran is the WMG Global Organizing Partner, and the Executive Director at the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW). ARROW is a global south feminist organisation focusing on SRHR and gender equality issues in the region.
Sascha Gabizon is the WMG Europe and Central Asia Organizing Partner and the Executive Director of Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF), an international network of over 150 women’s and civil society organizations implementing projects in 50 countries and advocating globally to shape a just and sustainable world.
Rachel Jacobson is a WMG Global Organizing Partner and the Program Officer for International Policy at the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), which advances the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and young people in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Misun Woo is the WMG Asia Organizing Partner and the Regional Coordinator for the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development (APWLD), a network of 220 feminist member organizations and women committed to promote women’s human rights and use law as an instrument of social transformation.
Noelene Nabulivou is the WMG Pacific Small Island States Organizing Partner and the Political Adviser to Diverse Voices and Action (DIVA) for Equality, a Fiji feminist collective and network of lesbians,bisexual women, trans men, transmasculine people and gender non-conforming women and people, working to affirm and protect universal human rights, and working with others on social, economic and ecological justice – building and sharing knowledge, experience and skills in local, national, regional, economic south and global spaces.
Emilia Reyes is the WMG Latin America and Caribbean Organizing Partner and the Program Director of Policies and Budgets for Equality and Sustainable Development at Equidad de Género: Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia, a feminist organization that promotes gender equality through law and policies and strengthens women’s leadership in political and social arenas.
Gunnarsson is the WMG Europe and Central Asia Organizing Partner and the Gender Expert, working on Policy & Communications at Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF), an international ecofeminist network of over 150 women’s and civil society organizations implementing projects in 50 countries and advocating globally to shape a just and sustainable world.
Abigail Ruane is a WMG Global Organizing Partner and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Program Director for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the longest-standing women’s peace organisation, advancing feminist peace for equality, justice, and demilitarized security.
Genevieve Riccoboni is the WMG Global Organizing Parter, from the USA, and is an Associate at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She coordinates communications and delegations of WILPF’s network of women peace leaders for the programme, and supports on research, monitoring, and advocacy work.
Nozipho Wright is the WMG Anglophone Africa Regional Organizing Partner and the policy advisor for ENERGIA International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy. ENERGIA is an informal network that works towards promoting policies and actions to recognize, validate and support women’s roles in sustainable energy development. ENERGIA strives to economically empower women by engaging them in energy supply chains and in using energy to increase productive activities and has aligned this vision with current global energy developments.
Buky Williams was the WMG Anglophone Africa Regional Organizing Partner from Jan – September 2021 as part of Education as a Vaccine (EVA), based in Abuja, Nigeria. EVA has 20 years of experience implementing projects that advance the right to health and freedom from all forms of violence of children, adolescents and young people, particularly women and girls.
As the WMG Post-2015 Program Associate, Lean Deleon supports coordination and logistics for the global network. Lean is a Philippine born, Bay-area raised, organizer committed to social movements. Lean loves community building, poetry, and queer feminist socialist decolonial praxis; and is committed to the national democracy in the Philippines and liberations of all people.
Andrea Vega Troncoso is part of the WMG Secretariat team, supporting coordination and logistics. She is also a Project and Communications Associate at the Women’s Environment and Development Organization. Andrea is an intersectional feminist from the Dominican Republic who grounds her work in care, relationality, and collective liberation.
Maitree Muzumdar is the Secretariat to WMG. She is a young feminist from India working at the intersection of art, law, policy and intersectional feminist movement building. Her work is foregrounded in human rights, focusing on gender and youth. She is the founder of Bootblack India, an independent alternative art collective, and founder of Feminist Manch, an Independent Action Research Initiative strengthening leadership of young women, girls and gender diverse youth in feminist policy advocacy.
Isis Alvarez is a WMG Global Organizing Partner of the Global Forest Coalition, an international coalition of NGOs and Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations defending social justice and the rights of forest peoples in forest policies. GFC participates in international forest policy meetings and organizes joint advocacy campaigns on issues like Indigenous Peoples’ rights, the need for socially-just forest policy and the need to address the underlying causes of forest loss.
Sascha Gabizon is the WMG Europe and Central Asia Organizing Partner and the Executive Director of Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF), an international network of over 150 women’s and civil society organizations implementing projects in 50 countries and advocating globally to shape a just and sustainable world.
Shannon Kowalski is a WMG Global Organizing Partner and the Program Officer for International Policy at the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), which advances the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and young people in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Kate Lappin is the WMG Asia Organizing Partner and the Regional Coordinator for the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development (APWLD), a network of 220 feminist member organizations and women committed to promote women’s human rights and use the law as an instrument of social transformation.
Nurgul Dzhanaeva is the WMG Central Asia & Europe Organizing Partner to Forum of Women’s NGOs of Kyrgyzstan, works to consolidate and strengthen the Kyrgyz women’s movement towards gender equality and women’s empowerment, building partnership towards women’s equality, and increasing women’s participation in public life through their organizations and NGOs. They have experience advocating in Asia, Europe and at the Global level.