Sara Petersson brings over 16-years of experience working in international development overseeing, coordinating, and managing large development programmes and portfolios with a specific focus on fragile states, having previously lived and worked in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Zimbabwe for 10 years.
Sara joined SDDirect in June 2013 and was seconded to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the Fund Manager for the FCDO funded Girls Education Challenge Programme, for 4 years as the Portfolio Manager for education projects implemented in fragile and conflict affected states to a value of £86 million. Lately she has been working with the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) managing their programmes focusing on Human Rights Due Diligence and workers’ rights in vulnerable supply-chains collaborating closely with corporate brands to promote the ESG agenda through partnerships and practical interventions. She is currently coordinating the response to the Ukraine crisis across ETI’s membership allowing her to use her skills of rapidly responding to identified gaps in need of collective action, skills she acquired through her previous work in humanitarian contexts having for example been the co-lead for the Early Recovery cluster in Zimbabwe.
Her previous work experience includes working as programme specialist for the reproductive health organisation Marie Stopes International covering Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, Early Recovery Officer for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Zimbabwe and in various NGO management positions in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sara holds two MA degrees in Political Science and International Area Studies from the University of California-Berkeley and one MA degree in Social Sciences from University of Lund, Sweden.