Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani
President & Founder, Arab International Women’s Forum
Fellow, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow 2017
Commissioner, ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work 2017-2019
Haifa Fahoum Al
Kaylani is President & Founder of the Arab International Women’s Forum,
and is recognised in Arab and international government, private sector and NGO
circles as a high-impact change agent focussed on women’s leadership and youth
empowerment, diversity and inclusion, sustainability, food and water security,
education and the Future of Work, working for progress, inclusion, peace, and
prosperity in the Arab region and internationally.
Haifa founded
the Arab International Women’s Forum in London in 2001 as a development
organisation committed to supporting women’s leadership in social and economic
growth in the MENA region and internationally and creating equality of
opportunity for all. Haifa served as the Chair of AIWF for 20 years and under
her leadership, AIWF has become one of the world’s most respected development
organisations for the economic empowerment of women and young people, working
at the highest levels with a global network of corporate, institutional and
global advocacy partners to advance momentum for women’s leadership in all
sectors and spheres.
Haifa
is a development economist, an alumna of the American University of Beirut
and read for a Diploma in Economic Development at Oxford University. In
January 2017, Haifa Al Kaylani became a Fellow of the Advanced Leadership
Initiative at Harvard University as one of 46 global leaders selected
for an intensive, multi-disciplinary program and yearlong Fellowship to
research and address significant social problems, undertaking the Fellowship
through 2017 to carry forward on a global level the mission to which she has
devoted over three decades of her life – the empowerment and advancement of
Arab women and youth through job creation, entrepreneurship, education, and
economic empowerment, in the MENA region and internationally. The key outcome
of her Fellowship has been a sustainable agriculture project currently being
piloted in Jordan for which Haifa has secured World Bank funding.
Haifa was the
only Arab Commissioner to serve on the International Labour Organization’s
Global Commission on the Future of Work (2017-2019). As an ILO Commissioner,
Haifa contributed to the flagship report of the ILO published in January 2019, Work
for a brighter future, which articulated the ILO framework for mitigating
future of work challenges. She brings a wide range of skills and experience to
her personal mission of encouraging greater cultural understanding and
sustainable economic growth and reform, supporting a strong role for women and
young leaders at the heart of that process.
Haifa holds
senior roles in several cultural, educational, non-governmental UK, MENA and
international organisations. She is a Board Member of the Arab British
Chamber of Commerce in London, which works to advance trade relations and
cultural cohesion between the Arab world and the United Kingdom and for which
Haifa has worked tirelessly to promote trade between the MENA region and the
UK. She has served as a Livery Member of the Worshipful Company of World
Traders for many years and has been admitted to the Freedom of the City of
London.
Haifa is also a
Member of The Stimson East West Council on Track II Diplomacy, a Global
Advisory Committee Member of QS, a member of the Harvard Advanced
Leadership Initiative Director’s Advisory Council and a longstanding Harvard
Women’s Leadership Board (WLB) Member, having been a member of the Harvard WLB
for 20 years and a member of the WLB Executive Committee. In 2023, Haifa was
appointed to the Board of Medurable, a Paris-based non-profit of Water
Champions committed to advocating for peace and sustainable development.
Haifa is also
an Advisory Board Member of the Global Thinkers Forum, a former Director
of the East-West Institute in New York, former Advisory Board Member of
the Imperial College Business School, and also served as an Advisory
Board Member of the London Middle East Institute at the SOAS University of
London. Haifa served in 2012 on The Commission on Global Security,
Justice & Governance chaired by former US Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright. She was also the first Honorary Member of the Euro Mediterranean
Association for Cooperation and Development (2012).
The
many awards and honours that Haifa has received during her voluntary service
career speak to the high regard in which she is held. These rewards also
recognise the significance of the contributions that she has made over the
years and continues to make to advance women and young people in the UK and in
the Arab World. She remains an eloquent and compelling champion for many good
causes, ensuring that women’s voices are heard, their contributions are
recognised, and their priorities are addressed.