Sumaira Ishfaq 

Sumaira Ishfaq hopes to start a new organization focused on the empowerment of marginalized communities in Pakistan. Ishfaq holds a Master of Science degree in Agriculture and works for Winrock International. Her thematic area of work is agriculture, rural development, and gender equity. She travels extensively in the remote areas of Pakistan because of her work with rural women farmers. She mobilizes women and rural communities at the grassroots level and connects them with different stakeholders at village, district, provincial and national levels. She also collaborates with government institutions to advance gender equality in agriculture.   

Ishfaq is a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow and studied International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University. She received the “Women of Courage” recognition certificate from Asian Rural Women’s Coalition (ARWC) for her work on rural women’s rights. She is member of the Intersectional Feminist Collective (IFC) and Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID). She also worked as an Ambassador for Thought for Food (TFF) in Pakistan from 2019-2020.     

”I want to be a visionary leader that creates more space for feminist solidarity and sisterhood in local communities at the grassroot level.  As a visionary leader, I want to show the world that women’s leadership is critically important for sustainability.”