Our Team

Lily Habash served in many advisory positions in the Palestinian Authority during the period from 1994 until 2009 and was instrumental in initiating and establishing key Palestinian institutions including the Negotiations Support Unit and the Prime Minister’s Office. Since 2009, she worked in several senior positions related to governance and policy reform in UNDP-PAPP, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq (2009-2017), and Niger (2019-2020). Lily has a diverse educational background including a B.A in Philosophy (The American College of Greece-Athens), a higher Post-Graduate Diploma (Ecole National d’Administration (ENA) – Paris), an M.A. in International Relations (Birzeit University-Palestine), an EMBA (Kellogg – Northwestern (Chicago-USA), a Diploma in Public Policy (JF Kennedy School of Government – Harvard University – USA) and a PhD in Politics (University of Exeter-UK). Lily has been active in the Palestinian civil society and was instrumental in founding, leading and serving on Boards of Directors of several Palestinian NGOs related to youth, women, media and Palestinian Christians in the oPt. Lily is also a regional and global activist and was twice recognised for her leadership and vision for development by the World Economic Forum – Davos, (in 1999 and 2003). Lily is a public speaker at international fora and academic institutions on issues relating to the Palestine question, European Foreign Policy toward Palestine, human security, religious tolerance, governance and women’s role in politics. She has also published several articles on Palestinian statehood, peace and women at the local and international levels.