STORY, LEADERSHIP, BOARD

OUR STORY

As two women coming from starkly different backgrounds – an American democracy expert and a Tunisian feminist activist – we found common ground in our belief in democracy, freedom, and our shared conviction in hope as a catalyst for change. We worked at different entry points to support the aspirations of citizen protest across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, to translate those demands into responsive democratic institutions and norms.

That experience revealed the fragility of democracy when it falls short on its promises, and the importance of hope as a driving motivation for change. With a combination of over twenty years of experience each in democracy and women’s rights, Ikram and Nicole created New Visions to reimagine and reshape democratic governance, taking action together across dividing lines, pushing boundaries, for deeper, shared benefit.

NEW VISIONS LEADERSHIP

Ikram Ben Said is an award-winning feminist activist, opinion writer, and international development professional with 14 years of leadership experience in organizations like Search for Common Ground, Save the Children International, and UN Women. Specializing in women’s political participation, peacebuilding, and civic engagement, she has worked in Yemen, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Burundi.

  • Ikram founded Aswat Nissa (Voices of Women), a leading Tunisian feminist organization advocating for women's political participation and gender-responsive policies. Her "Women’s Political Academy" received the 2014 Madeleine Albright Award for women’s Political Participation. Appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, she was instrumental in the Global Advisory Group of Experts for Youth, Peace, and Security, supporting the UN Security Council Resolution 2250.

    Featured as a Next Generation Leader by Time Magazine in its first edition (2014), Ikram's insights appear in publications like the Atlantic Council, the Washington Institute, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and The New Arab, focusing on feminism and politics.

    Her academic background includes the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, and The École Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales in Tunis.

Nicole Rowsell is a global democracy and governance specialist who has worked in over 25 countries for more inclusive and responsive democratic movements. She has advised on strategy with partners driving democratic systems change; advising governments, elected and appointed political leaders, and civic activists in diverse contexts such as Tunisia, Belarus, Kenya, and Armenia.

  • Nicole has also worked hand-in-hand with partners and sector experts to design global strategies to promote gender equity, counter disinformation, and build responsive environmental governance. As Acting Vice President at the National Democratic Institute, she provided global oversight and guidance on program design, proposal development and program implementation and played a key role in setting the Institute’s strategic priorities.

    She is the International Leaders Forum Coordinator at the National Democratic Institute and Adjunct Professor with George Mason University’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. She is on the advisory board of Political Leadership Academy, and serves as fundraising chair.

OUR ADVISORY BOARD

Sandra Pepera

Chief Strategy and Governance Officer, ODI

Sandra is an international development and public policy professional. For the last decade she has led the design and delivery of path-breaking work on gender and democracy at the National Democratic Institute (NDI), as Senior Associate and Director for Gender, Women and Democracy.

  • Prior to joining NDI, Sandra spent 13 years as a senior officer at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), including leading programmes in the Caribbean, Rwanda-Burundi and Sudan.

    Sandra has also spent time in British domestic politics; as a lecturer in political science and international relations at the University of Ghana; and as a political analyst in the Political Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

    Sandra is a member of the Royal Commonwealth Society, and the International Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Journal for International Affairs (The Round Table). She holds the Financial Times Diploma for Non-Executive Directors, and has served as a trustee for Glitch UK, the Serious Trust and for an inter-governmental pension fund.

    Sandra is currently the Global Board Chair for the White Ribbon Alliance, a member of the Action Advisory Committee of the Reykjavik Global Forum, and a board member of New Visions.

Zakia Khattabi

Minister of Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development and Green Deal Belgian Federal Government

Zakia Khattabi began her political career as a feminist researcher and activist with a passion for the theories of the social construction of reality, which was decisive for the rest of her career. She became a politician for the Belgian French-speaking Green party Ecolo: first as leader of the senatorial fraction (2009), then as a member of the House of Representatives (2014) with a re-election in this House (2019).

  • Her parliamentary work has mainly been devoted to the justice, home affairs and equal opportunities committees. In 2015, Zakia Khattabi was elected co-president of her party, a role she held for five years before being appointed to her current ministerial post in 2020. As Minister for Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development and the Green Deal, Zakia Khattabi believes that the triple crisis we are facing (climate, loss of biodiversity and pollution) is not just an environmental issue: it is the social issue of this century; as it impacts differently and unfairly on countries and individuals alike, hitting the most vulnerable amongst us hardest, even though they are the least responsible for this crisis. In her view, the transition is therefore an imperative of social justice; the transition will either be fair or will not be. Moreover, it also constitutes an economic and financial issue: the considerable damages caused by climate disruption (drought, flooding, etc.) is undermining our budgets and our economies. As well as it is an issue of public health, safety, and so on. As Belgian federal minister, she regularly took on the role of EU negotiator on crucial issues at international conferences on climate and biodiversity.

Rob Davies

Former South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry  and Honorary Professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance

Rob Davies served as South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry between 2009 and 2019. He is currently an Honorary Professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town and a member of the Advisory Council on Trade and Industrial Development appointed by the Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

  • Rob was elected as a Member of Parliament in the first democratic election in 1994, serving continuously for 25 years.

    Before entering Parliament he was Professor and Co Director of the Centre for Southern African Studies at the University of the Western Cape and professor auxiliar at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique between 1979 and 1990.

    Academically he holds an honours degree in economics from Rhodes University, a Masters in International Relations from the University of Southampton and a doctorate from the University of Sussex.

    His most recent book, Towards a New Deal: A Political Economy of the Times of my Life, was published by Jonathan Ball in 2021.

Farea Al-Muslimi

A research fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme. 

Farea Al-Muslimi is a research fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme. His research focuses on Yemen and the wider Gulf region. Prior to joining Chatham House, he chaired the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, Yemen’s premier think-tank, which he co-founded in 2014. He also serves as an advisory board member for the Arab Reform Initiative in Paris.

  • Between 2014 and 2018, Al-Muslimi served as a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center and the Middle East Institute in Washington. His prior experience includes work at the National Democratic Institute (NDI), Beyond Reforms and Development, and Resonate! Yemen.

    Al-Muslimi is a regular commentator on regional affairs in international media outlets. His writings and analysis on Yemen and the wider region have been published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Independent, The Guardian, McClatchy, The National, Al-Hayyat, Assafir Arabi, Al-Monitor, NPR, Le Monde, Die Zeit, Liberations, Daraj, Bidayat, Middle East Eye, Just Security, The New Lines Magazine, and many other publications.

    In 2013, Foreign Policy named Al-Muslimi in its list of ‘Top 100 Global Thinkers’ after his testimony before the US Senate about the human costs of drone strikes in Yemen, and in 2014 The Guardian named Al-Muslimi in its ‘Top 30 under 30’ list of young leaders in global digital media.