Farida YESMIN

A public health and disability expert, Farida Yesmin worked in Bangladesh for 30 years to address issues of gender, climate change adaptation, and disability inclusion. She founded an NGO named Disabled Rehabilitation & Research Association (DRRA) in Bangladesh that works for Persons with Disabilities and the destitute since 1996. As a national disability expert, she has contributed to the design and development of the majority of national disability policies and action plans. She is also a member of the National Steering Committee and founder board of trustees of the National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons and Neuro-Developmental Disabilities Protection Trust. At the international level, she was a board member of the Global CBR Network and was Chair of the Asia-Pacific CBR Network and LINC-ASIA Network. She was awarded by Nelson Mandela and received the Mother Teresa Award for empowering women with disabilities. As a recognition of working on disability & inclusion for more than two decades, she also received 2 national awards from the Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Throughout the years, she has conducted over ten research studies related to disability and worked with the Bangladesh Government and the World Health Organization to make the health system disability inclusive. She holds a Master's degree in Political Science, an MPhil degree, and a Diploma in Health Economics from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.