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avatar for Monica Ferro

Monica Ferro

United Nations
Director of the UNPFA Office in Geneva
Ms. Mónica Ferro is the Director of the UNPFA Office in Geneva since April 2017. She has worked to promote equality, development and human rights for the past 20 years.

Prior to joining UNFPA, Ms. Ferro had a twenty year career of public service in Portugal, during which she served as the Secretary of State for National Defense, as a university lecturer, a media personality and an activist.

She served as a Member of Parliament and was Vice-President of the Parliamentary Group of the Social Democrat Party; Chair of the All Party Parliamentarian Group on Population and Development; and Vice-President of the European Forum of Parliamentarians for Population and Development. Ms. Ferro is a founding partner of the 2015 Objective Association - United Nations Millennium Campaign, Portuguese United Nations Association, and Founding Member of P&D Factor Association for Cooperation in Population and Development. A National Defense and Civil Crisis Management Auditor, Ms. Ferro has also been a lecturer at the University of Lisbon, guest lecturer at the National Defense Institute, Air Force Academy and University of Military Studies. Furthermore, she is an Associate Researcher at the Centre for Gender Studies, University of Lisbon and has been a columnist for several national newspapers and magazines, and author of more than a hundred articles, entries in encyclopedias, book chapters on the United Nations, Development Cooperation, Human Rights, United Nations, Security Sector Reform and Gender Equality.

Mónica Ferro is Portuguese and holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in International Relations from the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lisbon, and is also a PhD candidate with a thesis on “Security Sector Reform in Fragile States”. She is married and has two daughters.