LightCastle Welcomes Dr. Julia Ahmed as a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Expert for the Bunon 2030 Initiative

Dr. Julia Ahmed is an Independent Consultant with a focus on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Gender Mainstreaming, and Health System Strengthening. She has over 30 years experience of working with Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Gender Consulting, and has led multiple teams focusing on gender and healthcare interventions. She has recently joined LightCastle Partners as a GESI expert.

In LightCastle Partners’ ongoing “Bunon 2030” initiative, Dr. Ahmed will lend her expertise in guiding and contributing to a unified action plan in interventions and knowledge content particularly in the upcoming multi-stakeholder engagements. She will also contribute significantly to LightCasle’s upcoming dialogue on worker well-being in the apparel industry, with a particular focus on gender and inclusion. 

Dr. Ahmed has a diverse educational history spanning a Bachelor of Medicine in Bulgaria, an MBBS in Bangladesh, and an MS in Health Evaluation Sciences in the USA. In her eventful career, she started as a medical officer and then moved on to broader responsibilities in the HIV/AIDS program for BWHC. There she was involved in the formulation of the National AIDS Policy and 1st and 2nd National AIDS Strategic Plan (1998-2010). She has worked in different roles with UNAIDS, Campe, CARE, Oxfam, IRC, and World Vision, among others as a consultant, and SRHR expert, contributing to research and program development.

“Bunon 2030” is a LightCastle Partners initiative that aims to strengthen the apparel industry for the next decade— adapting to the emergence of the 4th Industrial Revolution, changing Geopolitics, Circularity, and Worker Wellbeing. This initiative is part of “Oporajita: Collective Impact on Future of Work” and is working towards future-proofing women workers in the apparel sector and ensuring worker wellbeing.