Speaker Bio
Sofia Calltorp is Director of UN Women in Geneva and UN Women’s Chief of Humanitarian Action. In this role, she leads UN Women’s work in Geneva across the organization’s triple mandate as well as its humanitarian section.
Ms Calltorp has over 25 years of experience working in diplomacy, humanitarian affairs, human rights and development across different regions and organizations. She is a recognized and experienced leader focusing on forging strong partnerships with a multitude of actors to collectively achieve results, and has a strong track record in resource mobilization, international negotiations, strategic communication, and leading and motivating empowered and diverse teams.
Prior to joining UN Women, Ms Calltorp served as Ambassador and Special Envoy of the Swedish Government for gender issues. She has also served as Sweden’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe where she chaired the International Donor Group, mobilizing and co-ordinating the international community for a collective response to the multidimensional challenges following the fall of Robert Mugabe. As International Director of the Swedish Red Cross, she successfully worked within the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement as well as with other actors such as the UN to deliver on core humanitarian objectives across crisis contexts around the globe such as Yemen, Sudan and Myanmar.
Her previous positions have included Deputy Head of Mission in Khartoum/Juba as well as at the Swedish Mission in Geneva working on humanitarian affairs and human rights. She has also headed the humanitarian section at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, responsible for humanitarian policy and partnerships with UN/OCHA, WFP, UNHCR and ICRC and actively engaged in the negotiations of the Grand Bargain ahead of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul.
Ms Calltorp holds a Master’s degree (International law/Human Rights) from Columbia University and a Master of Science (Political Science) from Uppsala University. She has also conducted advanced studies in European Politics at Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (IEP) and in French at Universite de Bordeaux. She is fluent in English, French and Swedish and has basic knowledge in Italian and Spanish.