Flora Liebich

Flora Liebich is a graduate of McGill University, the London School of Economics, holds certificates in law from The Hague Academy and Salzburg University, and has carried out doctoral studies at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. In 2014, she completed the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET). For fifteen years, she worked in the refugee field with UNHCR (Geneva) and the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) where she held two Order-in-Council appointments. At the IRB, in addition to presiding at refugee determination hearings, she founded and chaired a Working Group on Women Refugee Claimants, which developed the Canadian Guidelines on Gender-Based Persecution (1993). From 1996 to 2012, Flora worked with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), as a Policy Advisor on Eastern Europe/Former Soviet Union, Head of the Peacebuilding Unit (managing the $10 million Peacebuilding Fund), and as a Specialist in Governance and Human Rights. As a Specialist, she managed projects as well as relations with stakeholders, and advised CIDA programs in Asia (notably Southeast Asia and China), Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Flora has also worked on human rights at Justice Canada, taught political science, and worked in radio journalism with the CBC and Radio Canada International. She is fully bilingual, speaks Polish and Spanish, and has extensive experience in multicultural settings. In 2006, she co-founded and continues to co-ordinate In Concert for Cambodia, a youth-based organization which supports education, including university studies, for young people in Cambodia.  She works as an Independent Consultant on international development, governance and refugee issues. She is also currently involved in volunteer work and sponsorships for Afghans at risk.