Thank you for visiting. Habiba is a governance, development and communications specialist based in Washington, DC. She is of Cape Malay and Trinidadian heritage and was partly raised in Jeddah and London.   Policy + Communications: Based in Dubai, in 2013, she co-founded the Arab Network for Migrant Rights, acted as Executive Director of Migrant Rights and spoke at the UN on migration and at Chatham House on gender in the Gulf. In 2012, Habiba headed Islamic Relief Worldwide's Communications division in Birmingham. She also advised the Canadian government, KBS Communications, Mama Creative, The BIM Hub and Okku. In late 2011 she advised two nation-building initiatives: Libya's oil governance and the aversion of state-collapse in Yemen for Oxfam and Reos Partners.  From 2010-11, she worked as an editor, leader writer and briefly, as a reporter for The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi.   Governance: From 2007-2011 she worked for United Arab Emirates governments. Primarily, she worked for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid's Executive Office, writing a book on Dubai's past. Affiliated with Harvard's Dubai School of Government as a Research Associate, Habiba focused on Smart Power and the aid architecture of the Gulf; the UN's AHDR said of this: "You have produced clear-headed arguments and a compelling focus for the strategic redirection of Arab ODA." She was seconded to the aid organisation Dubai Cares and at the diwan of Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, developed Sheikha Fatima's and several diwans' aid, gender, environmental and cultural programs. As a short-term Research Fellow at the London School of Economics, she held a seminar and spoke at Prince El Hassan's WANA forum in Amman on GCC aid architecture and fragile states. She served on the Muslim Council of Britain's Public Affairs Committee, co-founded the Middle East's first TEDxDubai in 2009 which "set the bar for all TEDx to come": TED and wrote opeds for Gulf News and for The National newspapers.   Economic Development: From 2006-7, she worked in Baghdad's Redzone, Iraq as an Economic Development Officer for the International Medical Corps, an NGO. She designed and led a statistics training program for Iraq's Ministry of Displacement and Migration and developed United Nations, BPRM and USAID-OFDA emergency response, water/sanitation, health, child survival and several other programs. She led Iraq's first household survey of Internally Displaced Persons, leading to the UN's adoption of IMC figures. Based in Washington DC, she and Khadeeja Balkhi co-founded TBL, Pakistan's first CSR advisory in 2005. Living in Karachi in 2004,  researched Citibank, CSR and microfinance for a master's thesis.   Governance: From 2003-5 Habiba was elected to the posts of President, Birkbeck Students Union, Governor of Birkbeck, on the National Postgraduate Committee and the University of London Union boards and reelected to the National Union of Students' National Steering Committee. The focus was on part-time students, leading to a nation-wide change in legislation. Background: holds an MSc in Globalization & Development (SAS/SOAS, University of London, 2004) and a BA (Hons) in Politics, Philosophy and History (Birkbeck, University of London, 2003). She studied for a BA in Arabic and Economics at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, in Chicago in 2000, and volunteered in Bosnia Hercegovina in 1996.