Bio

Cecilia Milesi is a sociologist specialised in governance, conflict prevention, accountability and inclusive development. She has over 25 years of experience leading and providing strategic advice to national, regional and global governmental, multilateral and non-governmental organizations and social movements in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe including United Nations, Amnesty International, Open Democracy, Conciliation Resources, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Oxfam GB, Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Kering Foundation, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), Reality of Aid, SES Foundation, among others.

Cecilia is one of the awardees of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Innovation Challenge. With this award, she co-designed an adaptive framework to identify volunteer and activists’ contributions to the achievement of SDG16+ (SDG peace, just and inclusive societies). In 2019, Cecilia served as the Senior Advisor to the South-South Cooperation on Peace and Development at the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC). In this role, she designed and coordinated a cross-regional South-South Cooperation initiative focusing on sustaining peace in the context of the historic “Second United Nations High-Level Conference on South-South Cooperation” (BAPA+40).

Cecilia is the founder of Subir al Sur, an Argentine initiative promoting youth leadership and intercultural education. Recently, she launched the Global Change, a social enterprise co-organizing innovative dialogue programs with the aim to catalyse the emergence of a world of dignity for all.

Cecilia is a 2019 AsiaGlobal Fellow, a distinction granted to emerging global leaders by the Asia Global Institute, at the University of Hong Kong. In 2014, she was also selected as a Fellow of the Global South Unit for Mediation (BRICS Policy Center, Brazil) where she undertook research on citizens’ participation in peace processes.

She holds a master’s degree in Violence, Conflict and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London. She graduated with honours as a sociologist from the University of Buenos Aires.

In 2015, Cecilia co-lead a CDA Collaborative Learning research to inform Total Austral’s responsible business strategy for the company’s efforts to improve its social impacts. Cecilia was invited by CDA that same year to provide expert input on various consultations to enhance CDA’s tools for peacebuilding effectiveness and ownership in international cooperation programming. Recently, CDA published Cecilia’s insightful blog on localization of aid. The article is an open call to renew the international cooperation business.

As a Global South Unit for Mediation Fellow, Cecilia also worked as a lecturer at the Winter Mediation School (Brazil) where she led training sessions on Do No Harm, Reflective on Peace Practice (RPP) and Conflict Sensitivity/Analysis. She is a certified University of Cape Town mediator and expert in the analysis of systemic conflicts involving governments, communities and private companies.

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