Board of Directors

Organisation: Peace Direct

Board Chairperson, Chair Executive Committee

Dylan Mathews is CEO of Peace Direct, a UK based peacebuilding organisation that was founded in 2002 to amplify the voices of local peacebuilders around the world and shift power and resources in the peacebuilding system to locally led peacebuilding efforts. His commitment to supporting local civil society organisations in the global south spans almost twenty years, during which time he has worked for a range of peacebuilding, international development and humanitarian organisations. While working for the think tank Oxford Research Group in 1999, he authored 'War Prevention Works' which profiled the role of civil society organisations in conflict prevention and resolution - a publication that helped launch Peace Direct in 2002. He is the editor of 'Working with Conflict 2' a practical toolkit for local peacebuilders, published in 2020. While at Peace Direct, Dylan led the Decolonising work of the organisation which resulted in the report ‘Time to Decolonise Aid’ which has been read widely across the world and has been translated into 13 languages. While born in the UK, Dylan is of Sri Lankan heritage, was brought up in Zambia, has lived in the Caribbean and Sudan and has supported civil society organisations in over 20 countries.

Member, Operations Committee

She is a medical doctor, lawyer, and researcher who is a the Founding Executive Director of The Africa Center for Health Systems and Gender Justice, an organization dedicated to pursuing equitable healthcare systems and gender justice in Africa. Her work focuses on addressing systemic issues faced by women, girls, and marginalized communities in Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, Economic Justice, and Climate Health. Her previous positions include Co-Executive Director of the East Africa Sexual Health and Rights Initiative, CEO of the Kenya Medical Association, and Vice-Chair of the HIV/AIDS Tribunal of Kenya. She is currently the Chairperson for Amnesty International Kenya; She also served as a Board Member of Funders Concerned About AIDS (FCAA) and as an Advisory Board Member for Racism in Global Health. Stellah holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, a Master in Global Health, a Master in Healthcare Management, and a Bachelor of Law.

Organisation: International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, Africa Program

Member Governance Committee

Born in Zimbabwe to parents of Greek heritage, Irene was exposed to diverse cultures and viewpoints from an early age. Her interest in human rights, political transitions and the law as an instrument of change deepened on witnessing South Africa’s first democratic elections and constitutional reform process while studying at the University of Cape Town. She later pursued post-graduate studies in transitional justice as a Chevening scholar at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Irene returned to Zimbabwe to practice law, mentored by human rights lawyers with distinguished track records representing both pre-Independence liberation struggle leaders, and those resisting authoritarianism in post-Independence Zimbabwe. Irene left a lucrative practice for the challenge of institutionalizing a dedicated group of volunteer human rights lawyers. Over 16 years (8 as executive director), the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights became a trusted safety net for civil society and rights defenders, while Irene learned how essential rule of law and an independent civil society is for democracy. Currently Irene leads the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law’s Africa program, defending and supporting civil society partners in more than 25 countries on the continent, and engaging governments, multilateral organizations and academic institutions to secure an enabling legal environment for civil society’s critical work. Irene is a recognized leader in Zimbabwe, with prior governance leadership in three major civic bodies - the Zimbabwe Election Support Network; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum; and Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition. She also previously served various regional networks including the SADC Lawyers Association.

Organisation: Young Advocates for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future

Member Membership Committee

Blessing Ewa is the Executive Director and Founder of Young Advocates for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future (YASIF) Nigeria, where she leads a team of diverse groups of young people, overseeing and coordinating programmes on climate change adaptation and mitigation. Under YASIF, she leads the coordination of Project Waste-Free Communities, an initiative aimed at promoting a climate-conscious mindset in grassroots communities. reaching over 2,000 marginalised women affected by climate change, fostering behavioural changes towards plastic pollution, and contributing to sustaining livelihood opportunities through plastic recycling and upcycling, resulting in the evacuation of over 10,000 kilogrammes (kg) of plastic.

She is the Africa Coordinator for Net Zero As Soon As Possible (NZASAP), a workplace climate ambassador scheme that promotes climate action within workplaces across Africa, changing the narrative on the way businesses approach sustainability and environmental responsibility towards the 2060 agenda of achieving Net Zero. Additionally, she serves as the country coordinator for Nigeria with the International Association for Volunteer Leadership (IAVE) and the Global Network for Volunteer Leaders (GNVL). She is also an active member of the National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) task force, an extension of the Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP), a multistakeholder forum at the World Economic Forum that aims to shape a more sustainable and inclusive world through the eradication of plastics.

Blessing Ewa is an engaged member of YOUNGO, the official children and youth constituency of the UNFCCC and holds a voting membership with Civicus Global Alliance. As a dedicated advocate of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), she leverages her skills as a youth and community development expert to contribute to the growing demand for the SDGs while creating positive changes both at local and global levels.

Organisation: Karapatan Alliance Philippines

Member Membership Committee

Cristina Palabay, 42, is the Secretary General of Karapatan Alliance Philippines, a national alliance of human rights organizations, desks and individual advocates working for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines. Palabay has been with KARAPATAN since 2010 and as Secretary General, she oversees the implementation of the General Program of Action of the alliance and serves as the main spokesperson/ representative of the organization. Through her years as an activist, she has faced death and rape threats, surveillance, and judicial harassment, presumably because of her staunch defense of women’s rights and people’s rights, but she continues to do her work as a human rights defender. Palabay has been a social activist since her student days and is also known for her advocacy for women’s rights as among the founders and later on the Secretary General of the Gabriela Women’s Party, during which she had campaigned for the full implementation of the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act and for the enactment of the Magna Carta of Women. She has been likewise involved in campaigns for the enactment of legislation against torture and enforced disappearances, and for justice and reparations campaign for victims of martial law during the Marcos government.

Organisation: ArtLords and Wartists

Member Operations Committee

Omaid Sharifi is a Curator Artivist, Co-Founder and President of award-winning art for social change movement, ArtLords and Wartists. Mr. Sharifi is a fellow with Harvard University, Atlantic Council, Asia Society and American Foreign Relations Council/Rumsfeld Fellowship.

Mr. Sharifi’s work to promote and defend human rights and specially women’s rights, promote accountability and transparency, artivism and fighting the shrinking civic space in Afghanistan and South Asia in the last 20 years has been recognized by the international community. Mr. Sharifi is also a resource person and co-facilitator for the prestigious International Human Rights Training Program of Equitas in Montreal, Canada. Mr. Sharifi started as a kid selling cookies and cigarettes in the streets of Kabul, he has worked on programs funded by The World Bank Group, USAID, European Union, National Endowment for Democracy, British Council, NATO and many more. Mr. Sharifi lives and works between Kabul, Istanbul, Boston and Washington D.C.

Organisation: TECHO

Board Treasurer, Chair Operations Committee

Born and raised in Cartagena Colombia, Patri moved to Miami, Florida USA 22 years ago with her family. She holds a bachelor’s in business administration and a master’s in finance. She has more the 20 years of experience in corporate finance both in the US and in Latam. Fluent in English and Spanish. Patri partially transitioned onto the nonprofit sector, five years ago by getting involved with the US chapter of Fundacion Techo International from Chile - American Friends of Un Techo para Mi Pais, a fundraising hub for Techo International. Her motivation to be part of this organization arises from a building experience with Techo with her family in her own hometown of Cartagena Colombia. Through her work and support she believes there will be a transformation so that we may live in an equitable, diverse, and inclusive world. She wants to be part of the process of transformation both in the local communities and the communities Techo supports in 18 different countries in LATAM.

Member Governance Committees

I am a social change strategist, campaigner and evaluator, and I hold myself accountable to the values of justice and authenticity. I am passionate about the power of movements and curious about how change happens and how it is interwoven with philosophical beliefs, culture and timing. I have worked in the not for profit sector for nearly 15 years and have supported both small and large organisations to achieve impact through learning, accountability and systems change. I am passionate about the use of evidence and learning and particularly decolonising knowledge and making knowledge practices inclusive. I started my career in journalism and campaigning.

I have recently completed a role at Oxfam GB, where I was responsible for leading the development of a new vision and strategy for evidence and learning. The strength I bring is as an ally. As an impact and knowledge specialist I prefer not to take up the airtime of others, but more to listen and stand in solidarity. And my skills lie in impact, accountability and how best to empower a more effective, innovative civil society. I am positive, enthusiastic and try to show up with a sense of humour and in an enabling way, prepared to work hard.

Organisation: Fundación Multitudes

Member Governance Committee

Paulina Ibarra is an expert in gender policy, open government and human rights, with special emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean, and has more than 20 years of professional experience in her field. She worked at the World Bank on communication and development, and in the Open Government Partnership launched by President Barack Obama in 2011. She is currently a Vital Voices fellow, working to combat disinformation and political gender violence. Paulina has recently been appointed by the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, to be part of the Commission Against Disinformation.

Paulina graduated with a Bachelor in Communication and Political Science from Marymount University, and holds a Master's in Communication from Georgetown University. She is currently the executive director of Fundación Multitudes, a member of CIVICUS, UNCAC and in 2016 she was elected a member of the External Consulting Group of the Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism of the Inter-American Development Bank. In 2018, she became the first elected chair of the International Steering Committee of the Community of Democracies.

More recently, she was selected to be part of the Summit for Democracy Steering Committee on Advancing Human Rights, as well as became a member of the Disinformation/Information Integrity and Women as a Prerequisite cohorts in the same instance. Additionally, she is a member of USAID's Women's Leadership Network and part of the Transform Program for the advancement of women in public life. She has been supporting the efforts of the World Wide Web Foundation Global Survey on Generation Equality and in her role in Multitudes she leads the Women's Observatory Against Disinformation, for which received an honorable mention at the World Justice Forum (2022) and at the Paris Peace Forum (2021). Recognized by multiple governments for her work on combating gender political disinformation, she has most recently participated at the 26th edition of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development at the United Nations in Geneva, at the 67th Commission on the Status of Women at the UN (NY) on women and democracy, as well as in multiple commissions led by governments and multilaterals on the issue of gender and disinformation. Paulina also participated in the OECD Global Forum "Building trust and reinforcing democracy" in November 2022 in Luxembourg, and in May 2023, she was invited by the Government of Sweden to the Stockholm Internet Forum to speak on the issue of gender, democracy and disinformation. Most recently she joined the Foreign Feminist Policy

Network as a core member to support women's leadership, and was a panelist at the Vital Voices

Open Dialogue on Women’s Leadership (Venice, August 2023).

Organisation: Civic House, Wingu, Donar Online, Kubadili

Member Operations Committee

Mario co-founded Civic House, an international non-profit organization as a result of +12 years of working to strengthen Civic Society and understanding that lowering entry barriers to new innovators and leaders is a key factor. As CEO, he works closely with a team of 60 full-time professionals in 4 different countries where they have a mission to provide funding, innovation, strategic advice, infrastructure, global alliances and a vibrant community of social leaders and social start-ups. Their goal is to lead a real change in Latin American inequalitarian societies. Furthermore, organisations and initiatives that Mario has co-founded or lead as Executive Director have trained +40,000 people in Latin America, leveraged civic society’s impact through innovation and technology implementations to about 2,000 non-profits, helped +1,500 non-profits to raise +$45 million dollars, reduced tons of pounds of food waste and distributed among social kitchens, received +2 millions of dollars in grants and international cooperation (Hewlett Foundation, Omidyar Network, Google.org, etc) and supported 7 different social start-ups and helped them to scale, create their own sustainability models and become self-sustainable. In addition, Mario is President of the Non-Profit Technology Civil Association in Mexico, an organisation with the accreditation of Institutionality and Transparency from CEMEFI. He is also a member of the executive committees of Fundación Casa Cívica Colombia and Res Non Verba Asociación Civil in Argentina. With his more than 12 years of experience in technology and civil society, he has travelled through Latin America and his networks and achievements prove a young profile with a trajectory and drive to carry out the transformation that we want to see in civil society. Mario is also a benchmark in innovation and technology issues and has promoted the digital transformation of thousands of social organisations in the region as well as conceptualised and promoted spaces for horizontal collaboration.

Organisation: Independent Consultant

Board Vice Chairperson, Chair Governance Committee

Sonia Kwami is a Campaigner and leader in development practice, who is passionate about working with and inspiring diverse groups of people to become change agents and challenge the injustices in society. She is currently the Africa Campaigns Director for the ONE Campaign. Over the past eighteen years she has successfully managed campaigns (online and offline) and supported CSOs and teams in over 60 countries particularly in the global south (Africa, Asia, South America, Caribbean and Pacific) through various roles in ONE, Oxfam, Walk Free and GCAP after a building a strong foundation at the national level in Ghana. Sonia also passionate about mobilizating, equipping and inspiring Activists and young people to demand accountability and change from their governments and duty bearers. She also possesses first-hand experience in co-creating various initiatives, leading, organizing and actively participating in CSO engagements at high level meetings at for a such as: G7/8 and 20 Summits, AU and UN lobby meetings, World bank / IMF meetings and various engagements around MDGs and SDGs etc. Sonia is a professional teacher by training and holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree and an MA in Democracy, Governance Law and Development from the University of Cape Coast. She serves on three NGO Boards including, Board Chair of Challenging Heights, is a non-profit, Non-governmental Organization in Ghana that works to protect children’s rights and end child trafficking.

Organisation: Transparency International

Member Membership Committee

Yi Kang (Choo) is currently the Programme Officer for Transparency International Defence & Security (TI-DS). He is responsible for enabling TI-DS to operate efficiently by delivering rigorous operational support across its global portfolio. Dedicated to the organisation’s mission to foster and promote global best practice on defence anti-corruption, he pushes for meaningful global reforms in a traditionally opaque and secretive sector.

Originally from Malaysia, he also brings in multi-sectoral expertise. As an avid youth advocate, he has been championing the welfare and meaningful engagement opportunities of young people globally. Some of the leadership roles he is currently undertaking include being a global Convocation Committee Member at Queen’s University Belfast; serving as a Board Member at SistersIn, a charity empowering girls’ development opportunity in Northern Ireland; and being a Future Voices Group Ambassador who advocates for better youth employment policies in the UK. He is also a long-time global ambassador at One Young World.

His journey with CIVICUS started since 2020 when he was appointed as one of the Youth Action Team (YAT) members. Here, they champion meaningful youth engagement practices across CIVICUS, and co-create innovative projects to highlight the work of young activists globally. One of Yi Kang’s proudest achievements thus far is when the YAT recently published a global research to highlight important trends of youth-led activism/movements, in which he had the opportunity to directly engage with inspiring young leaders and movements, especially across the Asia Pacific region.

Throughout his youth leadership journey, Yi Kang was awarded the International Student of the Year in Ireland and the Allstate NI Queen’s University Belfast Student of the Year in 2021; received the Diana Award, which is the most prestigious accolade a young person aged 9-25 can receive for their social action or humanitarian work; and was recently appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (FRSA) due to his positive social impact on communities around him.