Mira Rizeq
President (Palestine – Middle East)
Mira Rizeq (she/her/hers) is a recognised leader with over 35 years of solid local, regional and international experience in development and advocacy. Mira is a Palestinian who was born in East Jerusalem. She got her graduate degree in Business Administration in the United States and her second Master’s Degree in International Development in the Hague.
She accredits her first development experience right after graduating to Save the Children U.S.A. in Palestine and the Middle East region, where she started her career by designing credit programs and entrepreneurship development programs specifically for women.
Mira then moved on as Team Leader for the Local and Rural Development Program at the United Nations Development Program in Palestine (UNDP). She succeeded in designing one of the most successful partnership programs between civil society and local governments for poverty alleviation.
Later, Mira headed the Palestine National NGO Project, funded by the World Bank in Palestine for many years, a program managed by a consortium of international NGOs and led by the Welfare Association. Through this program, she has designed special training manuals for NGO capacity building, especially in areas of good governance, monitoring and evaluations, and conducted trainings especially for NGO Boards, leaders, and staff in these different topics.
Mira has been an active YWCA member since her childhood and served as the National General Secretary at the YWCA of Palestine from April 2006 to April 2020, after which she was elected as President in the 29th World YWCA Council Meeting held in Johannesburg in November 2019 in South Africa. Mira was re-elected as the World YWCA Board President at the first transformative hybrid 30th World Council, in November 2023.
Mira is an activist in the area of human rights, and especially women’s rights. She has served on several boards of women’s institutions, acted as an advisor to several UN agencies, especially on women empowerment strategies, and served as an International Board Member on the Global Ministries Board (United Church of Christ and Church of the Disciples) in the USA for eight years and actively advocating for justice.
Her passion is for music and advocacy for peace and justice. During her childhood and earlier years, she joined many music groups as a composer/singer and pianist.