Karachi, February 9, 2024 – Ms Simi Kamal, one of Pakistan’s leading geographers, has recently been appointed as Chair of the Board of International Water Management Institute (IWMI). With 40 years of experience in water, environment, food security, and related sectors, Ms Kamal is also well-known globally and nationally in social development and women empowerment circles.
Headquartered in Sri Lanka, IWMI is a globally renowned research-for-development organisation with offices in 15 countries. With its vision of achieving a water-secure world, IWMI has contributed to social and economic development through impactful research results. IWMI is also a research centre of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a global research partnership for a food-secure future. The announcement from IWMI said that Kamal has been instrumental in guiding IWMI’s strategic direction and organisational growth as a member of IWMI’s board since 2018, and moving forward will provide leadership in integration of IWMI with One CGIAR.
Kamal is the first woman to be appointed as the Chair of the Board since IWMI’s establishment in 1984. This is a huge honour for Pakistan and the women of Pakistan.
Kamal has also been recently appointed to the boards of two more well-known international organizations: the Board of Trustees of WaterAid UK, and the Board of Directors of the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), also headquartered in the UK.
Speaking about these three highly prestigious and important appointments Ms Kamal said, “As the world grapples with unprecedented impacts of climate change on water, environment and food security, we have to change the way we live. My focus in the next ten years is to work with leading global organizations on water and food on strategies that promote transformative futures”.
One may recall that in addition to these international roles, Simi Kamal is the Founder and Chairperson of Hisaar Foundation – a foundation for water, food and livelihood security based in Pakistan, and a Co-founder and member of the Executive Board and Advisor to the Panjwani-Hisaar Water Institute (PHWI) at NED University in Karachi. Previously she has served as a member of the Technical Committee of Global Water Partnership (GWP TEC) for nine years, has founded and co-founded several non-profit and for-profit national organisations and developed global platforms and networks. She is also an Independent Director on the Board of Khushhali Bank, one of Pakistan’s leading microfinance banks.
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