2026 Speakers
Keynote Address
Chief Commissioner for the Independent Commission on Aid Impact
Jillian Popkins
Jillian is an international development professional, with a career focusing on poverty and social justice. She has worked for the UK government, international organisations, and leading NGOs in the UK, Ethiopia and China, where she has held a range of executive, policy and programme management roles.
Jillian began her career in international development with the Voluntary Service Overseas, teacher training in rural China. She then worked in policy, advisory and leadership roles at the UK’s former Department for International Development (now part of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), before moving to lead UNICEF’s social policy work in China.
More recently, she has held executive positions for UK-based NGOs and been an independent consultant, advising government and global organisations on gender equality and social inclusion. She is currently a Trustee of the Baring Foundation.
Meet Our Speakers
Meet Our Speakers
President, Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge
Girish Menon
Girish is an experienced charity sector leader. His most recent executive role was as Interim CEO of UNICEF UK. Prior to this, he was the CEO of STiR Education for over 3 years after serving ActionAid UK as Chief Executive for over 5 years. He brings almost 40 years’ experience as a leader in the international development sector, having previously held roles as International Programmes Director and Deputy CEO at WaterAid UK, where he was responsible for programmes across 22 countries in South Asia and sub Saharan Africa.
Girish was born and brought up in India, and started his career with the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme. He has also worked at ActionAid, Plan International and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in India. Since moving to London in 2005, he has also served on the boards of various not-for-profit organisations including the Disasters Emergency Committee and Plan International UK.
Onno Rühl
Advisory Board Member (Airbus Foundation, EAES, Elefy)
Onno Rühl is a global development and governance leader with more than three decades of experience shaping institutions that advance development, sustainability, and resilience. Formerly the General Manager of the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, he built and led a newly created agency dedicated to climate resilience and sustainable community planning in South and central Asia and the Middle East.
A long-serving senior executive of the World Bank, Onno served as Country Director for India and Nigeria, overseeing multi-billion-dollar programs and working extensively on public private partnerships and in a diverse range of post conflict settings focus. He currently serves on the Board of the Airbus Foundation, as well as various Advisory Boards, and advises the Airbus Executive Committee on strategic transformation and sustainability. Onno started his career in the Netherlands Foreign Service.
James Pattison
Professor, University of Manchester
James Pattison is a Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester. His research expertise lies in ethical issues in global peace and security. He has written four books (all with Oxford University Press) and numerous journal articles, including in American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, European Journal of International Relations, International Studies Quarterly, and Journal of Political Philosophy. He is currently working on an AHRC-funded project on the ethics of responses to rising authoritarianism and the challenges posed by the shifting global order.
Mariana de Cunha
President, Association against Femicide
Mariana da Cunha is a Portuguese feminist lawyer and researcher dedicated to promoting change and advancing women’s human rights. She has worked across Europe and Latin America with various NGOs on issues such as gender-based violence, femicide, trafficking for sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and reproductive health rights. She leads a Portuguese NGO focused on preventing and combating femicide and is the co-founder of the Global Network against Non-State Torture (NNST). Her work primarily involves advocacy, lobbying, and policymaking. In the last years, she has been an active voice for recognising different forms of Violence against Women as torture per se. Mariana has conducted extensive research and authored numerous articles and policy papers on women’s rights, especially concerning Non-State Torture (NST) victimisations committed against women and girls by non-state actors in contexts like families, trafficking, migration, displacement, and civil unrest.
Mareike Schomerus
Vice President, Busara Centre
Mareike Schomerus, (PhD London School of Economics and Political Science) is VP at Busara. Working on the intersection of social, political and behavioral science, Mareike has published widely on violent conflict and international engagement, evidence-based policy and the mental models that shape it, as well as resilience and behavioral mechanisms in post-conflict recovery. She is the author of Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict (Bloomsbury, 2023) and The Lord’s Resistance Army: Violence and Peacemaking in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2021) and most recently Research Design in Politics and International Relations (with Anouk S.Rigterink, SAGE 2026). She was formerly Director of Programme Politics and Governance and Research Director of the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium at ODI in London.
Dr. Jago Salmon
Principal Policy Fellow - Politics and Governance, ODI Global, and a member of the UN-IFI Partnership Facility Surge Advisory Team
Dr. Jago Salmon leads ODI Global’s agenda on fragility, conflict, and violence and is a member of the UN-IFIPartnership Facility Surge Advisory Team supporting UN leadership in the Middle East and Central Asia.
With over 15 years experience with the United Nations, he has advised governments and UN leadership across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, and co-authored the landmark UN and World Bank report Pathways for Peace in 2018. Jago most recently served as Head of the UN Coordination Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina, coordinating the UN’s COVID-19 response. A former Senior Policy Advisor at the UN Peacebuilding Support Office, Jago has led major initiatives in crisis and state-building contexts worldwide. He is a non-resident fellow at NYU’s Centre for International Cooperation and SIPRI, fluent in multiple languages.
Motaz Amer
Human Rights Activist, Amnesty Country Coordinator for Yemen
Motaz Amer is a Scotland based human rights activist and campaigner. He is Vice Chair of Amnesty International UK’s Country Coordinators Forum and serves as Country Coordinator for Yemen. Drawing on his lived experience of conflict and displacement, his work focuses on human rights education, advocacy on conflict-related violations and accountability in contexts where formal aid and protection mechanisms are limited. Alongside this, Motaz serves as a New Scots Advisor to the Scottish Government, contributing to policy discussions on refugee integration, protection and participation in post-asylum contexts.
Dr. Paul Rogers
Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University
Paul is Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University. He is a biologist by original training, lecturing at Imperial College and working as a senior scientific officer for the then UK Ministry for Overseas Development.
He moved to Peace Studies at Bradford University in 1979 where he has been since, working primarily on the changing causes of international conflict, especially in relation to socio-economic divisions and environmental limits to growth. He is international security adviser to Open Democracy where he has written a weekly column for over twenty years.
He has written over 150 papers and written or edited over thirty books. Paul lectured at the JSCSC and the Royal College of Defence Studies for over forty years. He has also lectured at the Cabinet Office, the Home Office, the Security Service (MI5) and the Defence Intelligence Service.
He currently is Honorary President of the Movement for the Abolition of War, advisor to Declassified UK and to the Peace and Justice Project.
Becky Carter
Researcher, Institute of Development Studies
Becky Carter is a researcher at the (IDS) Institute of Development Studies. Her recent work explores climate preparedness and social assistance across development and humanitarian domains.
She is particularly interested in investigating themes of unpredictability and risk management; and the roles of local mid- and frontline actors in navigating political and cultural dynamics. Her recent research for the IDS-led Better Assistance in Crises (BASIC) Research programme included studies on improving external support for locally led social support mechanisms in Sudan and local capacities and women frontline workers involved in social assistance in Yemen.
More Speakers Coming Soon
More Speakers Coming Soon
Susana Klien
CEO, Saferworld
Susana Klien is a Peruvian international human rights lawyer with more than 20 years' experience in policy, advocacy, development, human rights and peacebuilding.
Susana grew up in Nicaragua during the Sandinista revolution and has seen firsthand the impact of war, militarisms and civil society resistance - an experience that shaped her commitment to, and involvement in social justice. Susana later moved to Peru to study law and worked at the Defensoría del Pueblo where she monitored government compliance with human rights law.
In 2002 Susana moved to the UK to complete a MSc in Public Policy at University College London. She went on to work as a researcher at the Campaign for Freedom of Information, Director of the Latin America Women’s Rights Service, Head of Programmes and Interim Chief Executive at Womankind Worldwide, Director of Programmes at Saferworld, and Head of Grants at the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
Susana has been CEO at Saferworld since 2024 an International NGO that works in partnerships with organisations in conflict-affected contexts to prevent violence and build lasting peace. She is also actively involved in antiracism work and discussions on decolonising aid and shifting power within the sector.