Please welcome our newest member from India, Shireen Vakil

Shireen Vakil is a distinguished social sector leader whose career spans child protection, gender and education across the UK, India and the broader Asia Pacific region. She spent two decades with Save the Children in both the UK and India and was part of the leadership team that established Save the Children India. Shireen played a pivotal role as Director of Advocacy, Campaigns and Communications. Her work included partnerships with the Ministry of Women and Child Development and UNICEF to deliver the first national child abuse study in 2007, along with contributing to the development of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme.

From 2015 to 2020 Shireen served as Head of Policy and Advocacy at The Tata Trusts. She later led Safety Policy for the Asia Pacific region at Meta where she worked at the intersection of technology and policy to provide expertise on online child protection, women’s safety and youth mental health and wellbeing. Most recently Shireen led the Child Opportunity Fund, a major multi year initiative between the British Asian Trust and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation focused on reducing violence and exploitation against children.

Shireen brings deep experience in building multi stakeholder partnerships and addressing national and global issues with governments, donors, civil society and the media. She has spoken and written widely on child rights and gender issues in national and international media. She holds a Master’s degree in Education and International Development from the Institute of Education at the University of London.

It is good to have you with us, Shireen. We look forward to the expertise you bring and to supporting your engagement within the CyAN community. Please feel free to reach out or explore Shireen’s profile to grow your networks mutually.