Noeleen Heyzer (1948- ) has directed UNIFEM since 1994, the first director from a developing country. Before this, she worked for the ILO and ESCAP, and she was director of the Gender Programs of the Asia and Pacific Development Centre (1984-94). She has chaired a number of UN task forces and committees, including on women’s empowerment for UNFPA, on implementation of the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, and others on micro-credit and gender equality. She has headed the International Delegation to engender the peace process in the Middle East and was co-convenor of the Round Table on Human Rights and HIV. She was born in Singapore and educated at the Universities of Singapore and Cambridge.

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