This year, Hayat Mirshad has been selected as one of CARE International’s Feminist Advisory Board members (FAB) representing the Middle East and North Africa along with three other feminist activists from grassroots, national, regional and international civil society movements representing Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. The FAB will contribute to the analysis of CARE’s strategic directions as set in Vision 2030 in regards to gender equality and other intersecting issues.

Mirshad’s selection in 2021 came following the year she was named among BBC’s 100 Most Inspiring and Influential Women for 2020, and for being a dynamic contributor to the feminist movement in Lebanon and the region, where CI was seeking insight, wisdom and advice from individuals who align to feminist principles but are autonomous from CARE and act as “critical friends”. In addition to providing practical advice on how to break down organizational barriers to reaching CARE’s vision, Mirshad, along with the other members of the FAB, will assist CARE International to:

1. Inspire and guide the confederation to integrate feminist principles in policy and practice
2. Inform and educate its structures on feminist ideology
3. Play a role of checks and balances to ensure they align to the feminist theory
4. Guide its organizational, operational and programmatic strategic thinking in relation to gender equality