The Quarterly e-Newsletter of the Gender Network December 2010 | Vol. 4 No.

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December 2010 | Vol. 4 No. 4

ADB Welcomes Gender Specialists in Central Asia and South Asia

Central and West Asia Department

Gulfia Abdullaeva is the National Consultant/Gender Specialist assigned to the Kyrgyz

Republic and Tajikistan resident mission for the implementation of a regional technical
assistance on Promoting Gender Inclusive Growth in Central and West Asia DMCs. Gulfia
Abdullaeva has 15 years experience in development work in Central Asia, in the fields of good
governance, poverty alleviation, community and women empowerment, as well as
experience in program/project management. Prior to ADB, she worked for the ADB-UNDP Regional
„Rural Women Empowerment in Central Asia’ project. She has worked with international organizations,
state and national institutions in various positions. Ms. Abdullaeva has diplomas in Philosophy and Law,
and an MBA in Public Services from University of Birmingham, UK.

Ketevan Chkheidze serves as a Gender Specialist Consultant for the resident missions in
Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia under a regional Technical Assistance on Promoting
Gender Inclusive Growth in Central and West Asian DMCs. Ketevan has experience in
designing and implementing projects on women‟s empowerment and gender mainstreaming.
Prior to joining ADB, she worked with a local donor organization and women‟s rights NGOs
in Georgia. Ms. Chkheidze has consultancy experience to various international organizations,
among them UNFPA. UNIFEM, UNDP, UN FAO, USAID and ESI and has participated in different
international donor conferences. She also has research experience in the field of women‟s rights and
gender, domestic violence, reproductive health, women‟s citizenship rights and policy analysis. Ms.
Chkheidze has a Master‟s degree in Gender Studies form Central European University, Budapest.

Wilma Silva-Netto Rojas has more than 15 years of experience in gender mainstreaming as
program coordinator, researcher, materials developer, and training specialist. Prior to joining
ADB, Ms. Rojas worked with the University of the Philippines Center for Women‟s Studies, the
Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Philippine Commission on Women. She has
collaborated on projects in gender and development (GAD) with numerous donor organizations based in
the Philippines, such as UNIFEM, UNFPA, ILO and the World Bank. Ms. Rojas has also been involved
with local women‟s organizations and NGOs, working to stop violence against women. She acquired her
academic training in the fields of community development, public administration and women and
development from the University of the Philippines. Wilma now serves as Coordinator of the ADB
regional technical assistance (TA) on Promoting Gender Inclusive Growth in Central and West Asian
DMCs.

South Asia Department

Jaya Sharma joined the Nepal Resident Mission as Gender and Social Development
Consultant to provide support in strengthening capacity of executing and implementing
agencies and in monitoring the timely and effective implementation of gender and social
related activities. She has extensive professional experience working in the areas of gender
equality, social inclusion, women‟s rights and empowerment, and social development. Prior
to joing ADB she has worked as a Gender and Social Inclusion Advisor for the Canadian Cooperation
Office, a CIDA Project Support Unit for 4 years. As an advisor she has provided advisory services to local
funds, bilateral, and multilateral projects on their design, management, capacity building, monitoring,
and coordination from a GESI perspective. In the past she has worked as a Fund Coordinator (3 years) of
the CIDA supported Gender Equality Fund that supported local initiatives by NGOs on women‟s
empowerment, rights, gender equality, and social development and as a Research Associate for a Nepali
NGO, Institute for Integrated Development Studies, IIDS.

Rina Sen Gupta joined at the Bangladesh Resident Mission (BRM) as Gender and Social
Development Consultant to support implementation and monitoring of project gender
action plans and in developing capacity of execiting agencies. She has more than 25 years
experience in working in the area of gender equality, women's empowerment and promotion
of women's and children's rights issues. Prior to joining ADB, she has worked as Policy
Analyst for CIDA under the Policy Leadership and Advocacy for Gender Equality Project. She also worked
with different bilateral, multilateral development partners and NGOs, including DANIDA, NORAD, the
International Organization of Migration (IOM), the Swiss NGO Terre Des Hommes, Radda Barnen/Save
the Children (Sweden). She served in Red Barnet (Save the Children-Denmark) as Regional
Representative for South Asia covering Bangladesh, India and Nepal. She has developed many training
modules on gender and human rights issue. She has a Master Degree in Business Management and
completed a Graduate Diploma on 'Men, Women and Development' from the Institute of Development
Studies (IDS) at Sussex University in England.

Mary Alice Rosero recently joined SARD as a Gender and Social Development Consultant.
Prior to joining the ADB, Alice was the Chief of the Policy Development and Advocacy
Division of the national women‟s machinery in the Philippines where she worked on
mainstreaming GAD in government, specifically the health department, social welfare
department, police, justice department, the courts, immigration bureau, among others.
She was also a regular trainer of government agencies and local government units on GAD
mainstreaming, GAD planning and budgeting, anti-VAW laws, among others. Alice was also the
concurrent project manager of the UNFPA-NCRFW Five Year Project on Mainstreaming Gender in the
Reproductive Health Program of Government, where she oversaw the development of various gender
mainstreaming tools such as the National VAW Documentation System, Performance Standards for VAW
Services, and gender training modules. She was part of the team that prepares the government report on
CEDAW implementation and was part of the official Philippine delegation to report to the UN Committee
on the Status Women in 2009. Alice earned her Masters Degree on Women and Development Studies
(“With Recognition”) from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, The Netherlands.