Dr. Daniela Ligiero
Dr. Daniela Ligiero is a long-time advocate for social justice. For over twenty years, she has focused on sexual violence, violence against children, gender-based violence, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
She is currently the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Together for Girls, a global partnership dedicated to ending violence against children, especially sexual violence against girls. The partnership includes five UN agencies, the governments of the United States and Canada, several private sector organizations, and more than 20 country governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, working together to generate comprehensive data and solutions to this public health and human rights epidemic.
Dr. Ligiero also serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. Before she joined Together for Girls, Daniela served as the Vice President of Girls and Women’s Strategy at the UN Foundation and developed the foundation’s gender integration strategy.
In addition, she spent over five years at the U.S. Department of State, where she led the integration of gender issues into all foreign policy and investments in global health—working with over 70 countries and over 1 billion dollars in investments on issues like preventing gender-based violence and improving the sexual and reproductive health of girls and women. She helped develop the first-ever International U.S. Government Strategy to End Gender-Based Violence.
Dr. Ligiero also served in leadership roles at UNICEF, as Chief of HIV and then as Senior Program Officer in the UNICEF Brazil Country Office—the second largest in the world. In addition, she has held positions at the World Bank and the US Senate and has worked directly with survivors of sexual assault in a variety of settings.
She is also a survivor of child sexual abuse and has been speaking publicly about her story for the last decade.Â
"There is so much silence and shame around abuse and violence. I started sharing my own story over a decade ago because I was done carrying the shame. There are so many survivors out there and I was driven to be the voice breaking the silence so that others feel less alone and know that there is hope and the ability to heal. For many years I have pursued this dream of building a movement to address the global enormity of sexual violence against children and adolescents. We believe there is power in mobilizing at a global level, while ensuring national and local levels are connected and mobilized to put pressure on governments, leaders, and decision-makers to take action. Together we are powerful and with our collective passion, dedication, and voice we will create transformational change for generations to come. We are Brave so that children can be safe everywhere."
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