Nafisa Shekhova is the Global Lead, Education & Early Childhood Development at the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF). She provides strategic direction and technical guidance to country teams to ensure programme quality and alignment with the AKF’s global strategic framework. She also offers technical assistance in programme design, innovations and learning to strengthen knowledge. Nafisa has been with the Aga Khan Development Network for over 20 years, holding key leadership roles in education and early childhood development programmes across Afghanistan, East Africa, and Switzerland. Before joining the global programme team, she served for five years as Regional Education Programme Manager for East Africa. Prior to that, she spent over five years with AKF in Afghanistan, where she successfully led the expansion of the Foundation’s education portfolio, including the launch of flagship girls’ education and early childhood development programmes. Nafisa is currently a member of the Geneva Global Education in Emergency Hub, the Moving Minds Alliance and the Educating for Pluralism Innovation Lab at the Global Centre for Pluralism.