Safa Ashoub is a political scientist and an urbanist. She has worked for more than 16 years in leading positions at several international organisations including GIZ, UN-Habitat, UN Women and UN-WFP. She has years of in-depth expertise in the fields of urban development including slum upgrading, participatory development, urban governance, institutional and capacity development, climate change adaptation, community development, and gender empowerment. Safa holds a double MSc in International Cooperation in Urban Development (TU Darmstadt and University of Rome 2 - Tor Vergata) (2010) and MSc in Political Science (University of Edinburgh) (2012) and a BSc in Political Science (Cairo University) (2005).