Speakers

Saji Thomas is Chief, Child Protection UNICEF Gulf Area Office and Programme Lead, UNICEF UAE and is currently based in Abu Dhabi.

Saji has over 25 years’ experience working on human rights, child rights and child protection. He completes 17 years with UNICEF this year - a journey that started in India, includes work in Sri Lanka, UNICEF HQ in New York, Egypt and presently countries in the gulf. As a UNICEF staff in Sri Lanka, he was part of the recovery and reconciliation process led by the UN after the end of the long-drawn conflict in the country. At HQ, he served as the global focal person for Mental Health and Psychosocial support for five years and provided leadership in the development of many a global guidance.  While at HQ, he also served as the co-chair of the Inter-agency Standing Committee Reference Group on MHPSS. He worked as Chief, Child Protection in Egypt providing leadership in child protection systems strengthening and supported putting in place a cross-sectoral approach to Ending Violence against Children (EVAC). He holds a Master of Social Work from Pune University, India, and have additional qualifications in Research Methodology and completed the UNICEF-INSEAD, France Leadership Development Programme in 2016