Sarah Hendriks, Director, Gender Equality, leads the foundation’s efforts to achieve substantive and sustainable results in promoting gender equality and unlocking the empowerment of women and girls. She is responsible for working across the foundation and with our external partners to develop and drive a strategic vision on gender equality, build organizational commitment, and establish technical processes that shape the foundation’s current and future work in the area.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Sarah worked as the Director of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion for Plan International, leading the development of a comprehensive gender equality policy, strategy and global capacity development program.  In this role, she provided global strategic leadership of Plan’s cross-cutting work on gender equality and inclusion, galvanizing action across Plan offices and staff.  Further, Sarah served as the chair of the editorial board and as the lead gender advisor for a multi-year global research and policy report entitled ‘Because I am a Girl:  the State of the World’s Girls’.  As the head of programming for Plan’s gender equality work, she led the development of the ‘Global Girls Innovation Program’, a $500 million portfolio of innovation and results-driven initiatives on adolescent girls.
Before joining Plan International, Sarah worked with Women and the Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) Malawi, an organization distinguished throughout Southern Africa for connecting gender equality and the law in action-based research, public service delivery, and advocacy for legal and policy reform on women’s rights.
Sarah has worked extensively as a gender equality consultant in areas such as Gender-Based Violence (CIDA), Women’s Access to Justice (GTZ), HIV & AIDS, and the design of gender equality strategies for organizations such as the Institute of Public Administration of Canada.  She has lived and worked in a number of countries including Malawi, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, India and Haiti.