Government & Public Policy

Hadia Nusrat

Gender, inclusion and diversity expert

Freelance

Islamabad · English, Urdu

Biography

I am a senior humanitarian, peace, and development professional with over 25 years of global experience in gender equality, protection, peacebuilding, child rights, and social development programming across Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Eastern Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. My work bridges the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, with a strategic focus on gender-informed emergency response, protection coordination, resilience-building, governance reform, and inclusive peace processes.

Throughout my career, I have provided technical leadership, policy advisory, and capacity development to governments, UN agencies, donor partners, and civil society organizations — advancing gender justice, GBV prevention, protection of civilians, disability inclusion, and women’s leadership in complex crises, conflict, and post-conflict settings.

As a GenCap senior advisor with OCHA in the Philippines, South Sudan, and Pakistan, I led multi-agency humanitarian gender equality strategies, Protection Cluster coordination, and GBV risk mitigation frameworks for large-scale emergencies and peacebuilding initiatives, including the Pakistan 2022 floods, South Sudan’s humanitarian-peace transition, and conflict recovery in Mindanao. I have also designed and delivered comprehensive capacity-building initiatives for over 2000 UN peacekeepers, humanitarian responders, government authorities, and local CSOs to strengthen gender-responsive protection and peace efforts in fragile settings.

My expertise extends to climate resilience programming, peace-sensitive humanitarian policy development, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and resource mobilization, having successfully raised over $45 million in humanitarian and resilience funds during the 2010 Pakistan floods and secured multi-partner funding for GBV, protection, disability inclusion, and DRR initiatives in South Sudan and the Philippines.

As a trainer, published writer, and visiting faculty at leading universities, I am passionate about knowledge transfer, feminist governance, community-led peacebuilding, and building localized leadership for sustainable protection and humanitarian action. My professional values are rooted in equity, dignity, community resilience, inclusive accountability, and safeguarding peace and protection in times of crisis.

I am open to hiring for gender-responsive humanitarian action, protection and peace programming, intersectional DRR, and social inclusion initiatives globally

Areas of expertise

• Diversity and anti-discrimination: Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines; minorities in Pakistan and Somalia; tribal and ethnic discrimination in South Sudan and Afghanistan; protracted marginalisation of Palestine refugees.
• Inclusion: intersectional analysis of gender
• age
• disability
• minority and clan status; LGBTIQ+ people

Key achievements

GiHA and women's voice in coordination:established the Afghanistan GiHA network and a Women's Advisory Group to the HCT that still functions; co-formulated Pakistan's Gender and Child Cell in the national disaster management system. Somalia inclusion structure:built an advisory structure under the Deputy SRSG/HC linking women, youth, minority clan and disability groups to the HCT and UNCT, after showing that minority tribes were absent from data and that 25% of households were headed by women with no tailored response. -Philippines Flagship Initiative: co-authored the OCHA Philippines ERC Flagship Initiative Guidebook (2024) and its Gender and Intersectionality Analysis Framework; made consultation with LGBTI communities mandatory in its tools. South Sudan roadmap:developed the HCT's five-pillar Gender Equality and Inclusion Roadmap, with terms of reference endorsed by the ICCG and HCT. Pooled fund quality:quality-assured gender in HRP, CERF and pooled fund allocations in South Sudan and Somalia, including two Somalia Humanitarian Fund cycles. -2022 Pakistan floods: co-led the inter-agency Rapid Gender Analysis and co-created a joint protection and gender strategy with ProCap. Resource mobilisation, raised about USD 45 million at CARE, including USD 40 million for the 2010 floods response; secured USD 400,000 from UNPRPD for a multi-UN agency disability rights project. Political inclusion:led 2018 election programming at Oxfam reaching more than 4,000 women, youth, persons with disabilities and transgender people; managed a EUR 2 million portfolio with a team of 20. -Organisational diversity:,opened respect-for-diversity dialogue across CARE Pakistan and its partners; gender-sensitised the HR manual and appraisals; built a safe, compliant complaint and response mechanism; developed the PSEAH policy. Peacekeeper training: trained more than 3,000 UN peacekeepers, adapting the DPKO modules with learning objectives on respect for diversity, sexual orientation as a human right, and protection of women and children. -National reporting:drafted the Beijing+25 national reviews for Pakistan and Afghanistan and supported Pakistan's CEDAW report. -Earthquake recovery: rehabilitated 228 girls' and boys' schools across six districts after the 2005 earthquake, with psychosocial support for teachers and caregivers. Disability inclusion at UNRWA: reported on the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy for programmes serving about 500,000 Palestine refugees.

International experience

Africa · Asia · North America

Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines, Thailand, Somalia, USA, to name a few

Engagement interests

Speaker · Panelist · TV / Radio · Podcast · Mentor · Training

Profiles reflect information provided for the directory. All engagements and arrangements are subject to individual confirmation. Private contact details are not published. For an engagement enquiry, contact Balance 360.