Katharina Samara-Wickrama, Oak Foundation

Katharina Samara-Wickrama is Director of the Issues Affecting Women Programme at Oak Foundation. She worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in their legal division and in the Refugee Women and Gender Equality Unit where she focused on developing programmes to enable refugee women to better access their rights as well as mainstreaming a gender equality perspective across UNHCR’s programmes.  Katharina then set up systems and training for NGOs to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse of beneficiaries; also to ensure that their programmes are accountable to communities affected by disasters and crises. In 2018 she was appointed to the Oxfam Independent Commission on Sexual Misconduct, Accountability and Culture Change.