As Executive Director, Lakshmi Sundaram is responsible for ensuring that Girls Not Brides delivers on its strategy and advances our collective efforts to end child marriage. Since joining Girls Not Brides in 2012, Lakshmi has taken the Partnership from a special project of The Elders to an independent legal organisation, and overseen its expansion to more than 1000 members in over 95 countries. She is particularly interested in broadening our understanding of effective approaches to address child marriage, and ensuring that the funding, policy and programme support are available to ensure that girls around the world can thrive.
Lakshmi is experienced in forging alliances across the public, private and NGO sectors, encouraging diverse people and groups to join forces for change. Her background is in global health partnerships, including at the World Economic Forum’s Global Health Initiative and at the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics in Switzerland, with Voxiva in the United States and with the Ministry of Health in Rwanda.
Lakshmi holds a BA in Biochemistry, as well as Master of Public Health and Master of International Affairs degrees. She is a Global Leadership Fellow of the World Economic Forum. A Swiss citizen, Lakshmi is fluent in French and English, and speaks some Tamil, German and very basic Spanish.
Early Childhood to Primary Education • Economic Opportunity • Education • Health • Health Delivery • Human Rights • International Justice • Livelihoods • Living Conditions • Peace • Peace and Human Rights • Sanitation • Secondary Education • Standards • Women's and Girls' Education • Youth Job Skills
Caribbean, Central America, Central and Southern Asia, Eastern and Southern Africa, Eastern Asia, Middle East and North Africa, North America, South America, Southeast Asia, West and Central Africa
