Zeeshan Noel is a development professional and rights campaigner with expertise in project management, capacity building, emergency response planning, policy research and advocacy. He holds Masters degree in Political Science from Bahaudin Zakariya University, Multan and a post graduate diploma in Social Enterprise Management from Lahore University of Management Science (LUMS). He has worked on large governance, capacity building and emergency projects with DAI-Europe, National Disaster Management Authority, Strengthening Participatory Organisation and CIDA Devolution Support Programme. He has also consulted with Oxfam-GB, Community World Service Asia, Pak-US Alumni Network, Action Aid, Insan Foundation Trust and Mind Map Communications.

Zeeshan is the founding Director of Rivets Learning and leads in areas of Capacity Building and Project Management.

Harris Khalique is the Director at Rivets Learning and leads a team of highly skilled professionals in the areas of research, training and project management. Over the last two decades, he has successfully led, managed and advised civil society organisations, private sector companies, government institutions and large-scale social sector projects in Pakistan. These include Amnesty International, Save The Children UK, UNDP, SPO and Oxfam. He has also worked across South Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. He regularly speaks at national and international conferences, to university audiences, think tanks and with media on the topics of culture, literature, education & scholarship, international development, global politics and South-Asian history. He has also participated in Track II dialogues between Pakistan and its neighbours. He has a master’s degree in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from the N.E.D. University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi.

Harris Khalique is also a leading Urdu and English language poet, essayist and columnist. He is a recipient of the President’s Award for Pride of Performance (2018) – one of the highest civilian honours conferred by the state of Pakistan – and the UBL Literary Excellence Award (2013), both in the category of poetry. He is also a University of Iowa Honorary Fellow in Writing. With eight collections of verse, two books of non-fiction and hundreds of articles, essays and columns, he has published internationally and his work has been translated into several languages. Earlier, in the 1980s and 1990s, some of his poems faced censorship in Pakistan.

Safiya Aftab is a Development Economist and Policy Analyst who has worked extensively inconsulting and research. She is currently Executive Director of Verso Consulting. She holds an MSc in Economics from London School of Economics and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University. She has also authored and co-authored many papers and publications on macroeconomics and poverty; migration patterns; as well as governance and social issues such as local government performance, modern slavery, and social exclusion. She has written for The Friday Times, Daily Times and Dawn Books and Authors.

Safiya Aftab is the Senior Visiting Fellow at Rivets Learning Inc. and leads in policy analysis and evaluations.

Fatimah Ihsan is a cross-sectoral gender and inclusion expert and policy researcher with about 20 years of experience in development sector and academia.

She holds a Master’s degree in Gender and Development Issues from University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Bachelors degree in Journalism and Political Science from Radford University, USA.

She has worked extensively on developing gender strategies, evaluating development and emergency projects, conducting research studies and designing training programmes for international NGOs, academic institutions, government agencies and the UN in Pakistan, the US, Afghanistan and the UK.

She has worked, as both a full time employee and short-term consultant, with Action Aid, NEDA (the Royal Netherlands Embassy), Save The Children International, CIDA, Catholic Relief Services, Canadian High Commission, the World Bank, WACTION, FAFEN, JICA and UN Women.

She currently teaches at the Gender Studies Department at Quaid-E-Azam University, Islamabad, and is an Assistant Professor.

Fatimah is a Senior Fellow at Rivets Learning and leads research and capacity building programmes in the areas of gender, governance and accountability.