Lesley Abdela

I was born in London after the Second World War. My education did not foreshadow the way my life would develop: via a circuitous route of earlier careers as an Advertising Executive, parliamentary researcher and Liberal Party parliamentary candidate. When I started up the all-party 300 Group, campaigning for more women in parliament, from The Mill House in the tiny Cotswold backwater of Burford, I had no idea of the ‘ride’ life was mapping out for me. I would have stared incredulously at anyone who told me I would be anything on the national or international scene, dodging mortars in Baghdad’s Green Zone, a seat on the Global Board of the British Council with luminaries like the FCO Permanent Under Secretary, invitations to Salzburg and Ko¨nigswinter Peace and Security Conferences, travelling aboard the Beijing Express to the 4th UN World Conference on Women. Combining skills and lessons learned from previous experiences I am now a recognised ‘boots-on-theground’ specialist on issues related to women in politics and public life, Gender equality, women’s rights and peace-building after deadly conflict and have worked in the former Soviet Union and Asia to the Middle East/North Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa. I am staggered at how much the topic has moved up the agenda globally over the past 30 years even though it still has a long way to go.