Azita Berar Awad

Country:

Switzerland

WAAS Designation:

Fellow

Primary Position & Institution:

International advisor on Global governance, Development, Employment and Social Policy

Short Bio:

Azita BERAR AWAD, is an internationally renowned political economist and global policy advisor on inclusive social and economic policies with extensive experience in international development cooperation and in the United Nations system. She has held several senior leadership positions at International Labour Organization (ILO) including as Director of the Employment Policy Department from 2006 to 2017. She has advised senior policy makers across all regions and supported institutions of governance at national and global levels on comprehensive policies promoting full and decent employment and gender- inclusive sustainable development. She has led the UN system’s joint response to the emerging global youth employment crisis including with the foundation in 2016 of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, an inclusive multi-stakeholder partnership established under the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Azita Berar has facilitated numerous international tripartite negotiations leading to the adoption of new international standards. She has directed research and policy reports in several fields of pro-employment macro-economic policies, poverty reduction strategies, gender equality, youth employment, informal economy; economic and social policies for peace-building and disaster resilience and is the author of numerous publications. Currently Director of Policy at the Global Labour Organization (GLO), she is also a Senior Fellow at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and teaches in various universities and executive education programmes. In 2020, she founded the first Global Interdisciplinary Policy Research Network of academia and policy actors on Youth Transitions. Azita Berar Awad holds post graduate degrees in Development Economics and Political Science.