ADB Welcomes Gender Specialists in Central Asia and South Asia

Central and West Asia Department

Gulfia Abdullaeva is the National Consultant/Gender Specialist assigned to the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan resident mission for the implementation of a regional technical assistance on Promoting Gender Inclusive Growth in Central and West Asia DMCs. Gulfia Abdullaeva has 15 years experience in development work in Central Asia, in the fields of good governance, poverty alleviation, community and women empowerment, as well as

experience in program/project management. Prior to ADB, she worked for the ADB-UNDP Regional „Rural Women Empowerment in Central Asia’ project. She has worked with international organizations, state and national institutions in various positions. Ms. Abdullaeva has diplomas in Philosophy and Law, and an MBA in Public Services from University of Birmingham, UK.

Ketevan Chkheidze serves as a Gender Specialist Consultant for the resident missions in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia under a regional Technical Assistance on Promoting Gender Inclusive Growth in Central and West Asian DMCs. Ketevan has experience in designing and implementing projects on women‟s empowerment and gender mainstreaming. Prior to joining ADB, she worked with a local donor organization and women‟s rights NGOs in Georgia. Ms. Chkheidze has consultancy experience to various international organizations,

among them UNFPA. UNIFEM, UNDP, UN FAO, USAID and ESI and has participated in different international donor conferences. She also has research experience in the field of women‟s rights and gender, domestic violence, reproductive health, women‟s citizenship rights and policy analysis. Ms. Chkheidze has a Master‟s degree in Gender Studies form Central European University, Budapest.

Wilma Silva-Netto Rojas has more than 15 years of experience in gender mainstreaming as program coordinator, researcher, materials developer, and training specialist. Prior to joining ADB, Ms. Rojas worked with the University of the Philippines Center for Women‟s Studies, the

Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Philippine Commission on Women. She has collaborated on projects in gender and development (GAD) with numerous donor organizations based in the Philippines, such as UNIFEM, UNFPA, ILO and the World Bank. Ms. Rojas has also been involved with local women‟s organizations and NGOs, working to stop violence against women. She acquired her academic training in the fields of community development, public administration and women and development from the University of the Philippines. Wilma now serves as Coordinator of the ADB regional technical assistance (TA) on Promoting Gender Inclusive Growth in Central and West Asian DMCs.

South Asia Department

Jaya Sharma joined the Nepal Resident Mission as Gender and Social Development Consultant to provide support in strengthening capacity of executing and implementing agencies and in monitoring the timely and effective implementation of gender and social related activities. She has extensive professional experience working in the areas of gender equality, social inclusion, women‟s rights and empowerment, and social development. Prior

to joing ADB she has worked as a Gender and Social Inclusion Advisor for the Canadian Cooperation Office, a CIDA Project Support Unit for 4 years. As an advisor she has provided advisory services to local funds, bilateral, and multilateral projects on their design, management, capacity building, monitoring, and coordination from a GESI perspective. In the past she has worked as a Fund Coordinator (3 years) of the CIDA supported Gender Equality Fund that supported local initiatives by NGOs on women‟s

The Quarterly e-Newsletter of the Gender Network December 2010 | Vol. 4 No. 4 December 2010 | Vol. 4 No. 4

empowerment, rights, gender equality, and social development and as a Research Associate for a Nepali NGO, Institute for Integrated Development Studies, IIDS.

Rina Sen Gupta joined at the Bangladesh Resident Mission (BRM) as Gender and Social Development Consultant to support implementation and monitoring of project gender action plans and in developing capacity of execiting agencies. She has more than 25 years experience in working in the area of gender equality, women's empowerment and promotion of women's and children's rights issues. Prior to joining ADB, she has worked as Policy

Analyst for CIDA under the Policy Leadership and Advocacy for Gender Equality Project. She also worked with different bilateral, multilateral development partners and NGOs, including DANIDA, NORAD, the International Organization of Migration (IOM), the Swiss NGO Terre Des Hommes, Radda Barnen/Save the Children (Sweden). She served in Red Barnet (Save the Children-Denmark) as Regional Representative for South Asia covering Bangladesh, India and Nepal. She has developed many training modules on gender and human rights issue. She has a Master Degree in Business Management and completed a Graduate Diploma on 'Men, Women and Development' from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at Sussex University in England.

Mary Alice Rosero recently joined SARD as a Gender and Social Development Consultant. Prior to joining the ADB, Alice was the Chief of the Policy Development and Advocacy Division of the national women‟s machinery in the Philippines where she worked on mainstreaming GAD in government, specifically the health department, social welfare department, police, justice department, the courts, immigration bureau, among others.

She was also a regular trainer of government agencies and local government units on GAD mainstreaming, GAD planning and budgeting, anti-VAW laws, among others. Alice was also the concurrent project manager of the UNFPA-NCRFW Five Year Project on Mainstreaming Gender in the Reproductive Health Program of Government, where she oversaw the development of various gender mainstreaming tools such as the National VAW Documentation System, Performance Standards for VAW Services, and gender training modules. She was part of the team that prepares the government report on CEDAW implementation and was part of the official Philippine delegation to report to the UN Committee on the Status Women in 2009. Alice earned her Masters Degree on Women and Development Studies (“With Recognition”) from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, The Netherlands.