Chair of the Board of Directors

Ms. Bandana Rana has three decades of experience in promoting women’s rights and gender equality at the grassroots, national, regional and global level. She is one of the founders and currently the executive chair of Saathi a pioneer NGO working on violence against women and girls in Nepal.

Ms. Rana worked with Nepal Television as editor/anchor for twenty years and founded Sancharika Samuha (Forum of Women in Media) and was its first elected president. She has profound experience in leading advocacy programs for women’s rights with focus on media interventions and enhancing participatory communication at all levels – community, national and regional. She has led programs and studies related to GBV in conflict situations.

Ms. Rana was also the lead consultant for the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction for developing the 1325 & 1820 National Action Plan in 2010/11 and is presently actively engaged in its localization, implementation and monitoring. She has conducted training programs on UNSCR 1325 NAP in Afghanistan, North East India and Iraq. She is a coordinating member of the Asia Pacific Women’s Alliance for Peace and Security (APWAPS) and the chair of GNWP as well as member of the High-Level Advisory Group for the Global Study on the implementation of UNSCR 1325. She is also a member of the UN Women Global Civil Society Advisory Group and Advisory Group for Women Peace and Security for UN ESCAP. She is serving her second term as a UN CEDAW Committee Member, first elected in 2017.