Yasmine Sherif

Yasmine Sherif is a Swedish human rights lawyer with over 35 years of experience in international affairs and global leadership. She is the Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.

A graduate of Stockholm University with an LLM (1987), Sherif joined the United Nations in 1988 and has since served in senior roles across New York, Geneva, and crisis-affected regions in Africa, Asia, the Balkans, and the Middle East. Her career spans humanitarian, development, and political systems, with extensive first-hand experience in crisis and post-crisis contexts.

Among her many achievements, Sherif led the 1992 UN investigation into political prisoners during Cambodia’s UN-held elections, resulting in the release of 20 detainees. In the mid-1990s, she oversaw the first post-Dayton Peace Accords repatriation of Bosnian refugees for UNHCR. She later helped establish the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Protection of Civilians agenda.

In the 2000s, Sherif founded the UN’s largest rule of law program in Sudan, advancing access to justice for girls and women in Darfur. She went on to lead the creation and expansion of UNDP’s Global Rule of Law, Justice & Security portfolio across more than 40 crisis-affected countries, growing resources to US$450 million. As Deputy Special Representative for UNDP/PAPP, she oversaw development operations in highly complex crisis settings.

Sherif has also served with NGOs and as an Adjunct Professor at Long Island University. Her numerous honours include Sweden’s UN Friend of the Year, the Mother Teresa Award, inclusion in Who’s Who in America (2024), and the MY HERO Global Educator Award.

She is the author of The Case for Humanity: An Extraordinary Session (2014) and has led ECW since 2016. Her forthcoming book, Unleash Your Humanity: Driven to Become, Inspired to Serve, co-authored with Scott Tavis, is scheduled for release in Fall 2026.

To read more about Yasmine and her remarkable work, please head to our MY HERO story:  Yasmine Sherif: Global Educator and Champion for Youth.

To find out even more, watch the EVA HALLER SALON, in partnership with MY HERO, HERE, where Yasmine and Mohamed Sidibay discuss their work to support the rights of all children to an education.

Update 2023

Sherif and ECW continue to work to achieve their goal of ‘a world where all children and adolescents affected by crises can learn free of cost, in safety and without fear, to grow and reach their full potential.’ 2020’s achievements are highlighted in their ‘Winning the Human Race’ annual report. 2020 proved particularly difficult with the COVID-19 pandemic, creating new challenges and increasing existing risks for the most vulnerable groups.

Said Sherif, “COVID-19 compounded the effects of armed conflict, instability, climate-related disasters and forced displacement from Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, to the Sahel, Ethiopia, and Venezuela – to name but a few of the crises where ECW is working with partners to fulfill the right of every girl and boy to a safe, quality education.”

Despite these challenges, ECW quickly adapted its response and continued to support quality education outcomes for girls and boys caught in armed conflicts, forced displacement, and climate change-induced disasters. The organization also maintained its funding performance (with thanks to their ‘strengthened partner engagement’) and managed to mobilize $91.9 million during the year.

In late October 2021, Sheriff led an all-women team to Afghanistan declaring on her return that the country was on ‘the brink of collapse,’ and made an appeal to the world to help: “We need at least $1 billion being invested into the education sector to ensure that girls and boys can attend quality education in the continuous from primary to secondary school.”

During her mission, Sherif met with UN representatives, visited a girls' school in Kabul, and met with a wide range of education partners, civil society organizations, and the de facto authorities. Stated Sherif: “Salaries have not been paid for months, money and goods are no longer circulating in the country, entire communities and families have lost their livelihoods and struggle to make ends meet. Those who suffer the brunt of this acute crisis are the most innocent and vulnerable: girls, boys, adolescents and youth.”

Yasmine with studentsCourtesy of Yasmine Sherif

“UN member states, donors and humanitarian organizations, as well as crisis-sensitive development organizations, must remain engaged and act together now to support children, teachers, educators and the Afghan people – with education at the center of the response – because education is their future and the future of the country. An estimated $1 billion dollars is urgently required by organizations working in the education sector.”

To date, ECW has invested over $45 million to support the education of girls, boys and adolescents in Afghanistan.

SAVE THE DATE: EVA HALLER SALON 31 January 2026

On Saturday, 31st January, Yasmine will join Eva and guests to talk about her forthcoming book, Unleash Your Humanity: Driven to Become, Inspired to Serve, where she will reflect on leadership, responsibility, and service shaped by decades of work in some of the world’s most fragile and complex contexts.

Through an intimate and insightful conversation, she will explore how empathy, moral clarity, courage, and ethical leadership influence institutions, policies, and the everyday choices we make. Sherif’s talk will examine what it means to lead with conscience—and how lasting change begins from within.

Please email your requests to join this and all future salons to: [email protected]

[i] https://www.educationcannotwait.org/annual-report-2020/