Shaden Khallaf

Shaden Khallaf is a seasoned international expert in public policy and advocacy, having designed and led transformative change in humanitarian and development affairs, public-private partnership, women and children’s rights, and climate action over the course of a 20+ year
career in the United Nations, academia, and private sector.

Shaden currently heads Public Policy for North Africa at Meta, and leads on sustainability and national storytelling for digital tourism promotion. Shaden has elevated public-private partnerships around adoption of emerging technology, including Artificial Intelligence, in digital transformation strategies and economic development, as well as enhancing digital maturity and online safety for youth, and the role of tech and data-driven approaches for climate action.

Shaden previously served as Senior Policy Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa at the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) where she pioneered strategic
partnership policy design, including the first regional advocacy and communications plan for a
region fraught with multiple and overlapping crises, the first regional displacement civil
society network, the first Arabic academic displacement journal, spearheaded innovative
finance and private sector resource mobilization, and led partnership with the World Bank on
the humanitarian-development-peace nexus and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Shaden spent many years in the field working on refugee women and child protection, mixed
migration movements, durable solutions for displaced populations, and support to host
communities through inclusive policy frameworks.

Shaden has been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Fellow at the
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. She has lectured on
international law at the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP) of the American
University in Cairo, and at the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) at the University of Jordan in
Amman, and has published and spoken on global multilateral policy design at academic
institutions such as Harvard University, New York University, Columbia University, and Oxford
University, among others.

Shaden holds a Masters Degree in International Relations, and recently completed an
Executive Education program on Climate Change Economic Policies at the Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard University. In recognition of her contributions, Shaden was selected
among “100 AUC Alumni of the Century,” and a “Women of Egypt Hero,” as well as awarded
among “365 Inspiring Arab Women” by Women in Business Arabia