LUMS alumna, Fiza Farhan, BSc Economics (Class of 2007) continues to make her alma mater proud. She contributes to development agendas in a wide variety of areas that she is passionate about, including women empowerment, climate change, inclusive development and gender equality. Her extraordinary work with multiple stakeholders is a combination of her diverse experience and unique expertise.
Ms. Farhan represented Pakistan on the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Women Economic Empowerment for two years. This allowed her to strengthen her professional competencies, and also paved a path for her to expand her advisory knowledge on a global platform. Her outreach ranged from working with government bodies, the private sector, development agencies and civil society organisations.
There is clearly no stopping Ms. Farhan.
She has worked on several projects with UNICEF, Oxfam International, UNDP, the Government of Pakistan and Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) covering a vast array of socio-economic concerns, including women economic empowerment, renewable energy and partnerships between UN Agencies/Government bodies and the private sector.
Following her two year term serving as Chairperson to Chief Minister (CM) Punjab’s Task Force on Women Empowerment, she worked on national and provincial governmental levels in order to influence policymaking on various levels. This led to her current role of being on the CM’s Task Force for International Donor Relations, while also being on the board of various public and private sector entities in Pakistan and globally.
In parallel, Ms. Farhan decided to institutionalise her development advisory work by launching ORA Global Development Advisors and is the company’s CEO. The firm focuses on bringing together multiple development experts to collaborate and work on a diverse range of projects in order to achieve mutual development agendas. The firm will soon be partnering with the very successful, 'Male Champions of Change (MCC)' project from Australia, in order to launch Pakistan’s first ever international group of MCC Australia that will bring together 250 CEOs to commit to gender equality.
Ms. Farhan is also working to launch the ORA Foundation in the coming months, which will bring about development innovations in rural communities and provide access to energy for the underprivileged population.
