About Purna

I am a Visiting Professor at the Child and Woman Abuse Unit at LMU where I run a webinar series on ending violence against women for which recordings are available here, here and here. Please join us for these discussions!

I sit on the Board of UK Feminista and on the Steering Group of the International Coalition Against Economic Abuse.

In previous lives I have been

• Executive Co-ordinator and Spokesperson on Addressing Sexual Harassment and Other Forms of Discrimination, UN Women
• Director of Policy, UN Women
• Deputy Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, London School of Economics
• Director of the Programme for African Leadership, London School of Economics
• Head of Human Rights at the Commonwealth Secretariat
• Regional Director Asia-Pacific, Amnesty International
• Domestic Violence Co-ordinator, London Borough of Camden
• Convenor MSc in Gender and Development, London School of Economics

For many years I taught in further, adult and higher education and worked with a range of NGOs. These have included the Refugee Women’s Resource Project, Womankind Worldwide, Southall Black Sisters, the Kaleidoscope Trust and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.

I am especially invested in organisations that exist to do ‘good work’ – such as to end poverty, promote sustainable development or achieve global justice. I am disheartened by the discontinuities, the disconnect that thrives between how we behave with our colleagues and what we seek in the world beyond our workplaces. Sexual harassment in the workplace is one arena in which this discontinuities are clear.

After over twenty years of working in or with international organisations focused on the promotion of democracy, development and rights I suffer no illusions of perfection inside the organisational homes of those seeking justice. I am in favour of maximum possible transparency, opposed to opaqueness.  I will stand with those who challenge the latter, often used in efforts to deflect examination and accountability.

Doing ‘good work’ does not in itself make anyone a ‘good person’ nor can it be wielded as a shield against scrutiny.

Without understanding how power works in these organisations we cannot even start to dismantle and reshape the contexts which support and enable its abuse. This topic will be a theme on this site.