Sawsan Abou Zainedin is the Chief Executive Officer of Madaniya, a Syrian led civic initiative bringing together more than 250 civil society organisations to reclaim political agency of Syria’s civic space. Trained as an architect and urban development planner, she brings a decade of experience in development, policy research, and multidisciplinary approaches to the Syrian conflict through her work with leading international organisations and key Syrian institutions.
She has lectured at universities including McGill, Bath, UCL, and the Istituto Superiore di Politica Internazionale, and has published with respected universities and research centres such as Carnegie Middle East, Chatham House, AUB, AUC, UCL, among others.
Sawsan is a member of IFIT’s Syria Resource Group and Depolarization CoP and of GIZ’s HLP Expert Network. A Chevening scholar, she holds an MSc in Urban Development Planning from the Bartlett’s Development Planning Unit of UCL. She also earned a postgraduate diploma in Integrated Planning and Urban Strategies from the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies at Erasmus University and a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from the University of Aleppo.

Participant in: May 2018 Fellowship: Peacebuilding and Women’s Meaningful Participation in Peacebuilding Processes