Abia Akram is the CEO of the National Forum of Women with Disabilities (NFWWD), one of LIGHT FOR THE WORLD‘s partner organisations in Pakistan.  She has been instrumental in leading the disability youth and women’s movement in Pakistan and in the Asia Pacific region.  She holds several leadership position including, the coordinator and founding member of the Special Talent Exchange Program (STEP), the Asia Pacific Women with Disabilities United, as well as chairing the UNICEF Global Partnership for Children with Disabilities (GPCwD) Youth Council. Abia has a post graduate qualification in Gender and International Development from the University of Warwick, UK.  She has used her training and exposure to experiences in other countries to strengthen advocacy initiatives towards promoting the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  Abia has also served as a disability advisor on Community-based Rehabilitation (CBR) projects, an approach, which forms the foundation for many successful inclusive education programmes. After the massive floods in Pakistan Abia worked as Liaison and Capacity Building Advisor that supported the mainstreaming of disability in the Humanitarian responses of NGOs.  As coordinator of the Ageing and Disability Task Force, she was instrumental in promoting disability inclusiveness in all the UN Humanitarian Emergency Responses in Pakistan.