Manisha Thomas Senior Policy Advisor, International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), Geneva, Switzerland
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Manisha Thomas has been working with International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) since 1999. Founded in 1962, ICVA is a global NGO network working on humanitarian advocacy and policy. She joined ICVA as a consultant from The Advocacy Project, which helped ICVA develop its main information tools: its newsletter, Talk Back, and the website. She has since focused more on policy issues related to humanitarian affairs, with a particular focus on refugee policy, IDP issues, and the UN-led humanitarian reform process. As ICVA’s Senior Policy Officer, she engages in various policy discussions at the global level within the context of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), where ICVA tries to bring the views of its national and international members to the table. She has participated in various missions to work with ICVA member agencies, including as part of inter-agency missions to Afghanistan in 2005 and to the Central African Republic in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, she undertook missions to Kenya, Philippines, Nepal, and Georgia to look at the role of national NGOs in IDP protection. In 2009, she provided support to the Chair of the INGO Forum in Khartoum, Sudan for a couple of months. In 2010, she helped to set up an NGO Coordination Support Office along with InterAction in Haiti following the earthquake. Manisha was acting ICVA Coordinator from April to October 2007, while Ed Schenkenberg van Mierop, ICVA’s Coordinator, was on sabbatical.
For more information on ICVA, please visit: www.icva.ch
