40 Under 40 Award Winners

Shakeela Amaj

Shakeela Amaj is Technical Advisor at Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) and an advocate for women's rights and economic empowerment. She has developed several national policies and strategies to help Afghan women participate in the mainstream economy, and conducted national media campaigns on perception change for women’s inclusion in society.

She has over 12 years of experience in project management, particularly in women’s empowerment and gender equality, with national and international organizations. Ms. Amaj has designed and implemented several developmental projects in “restricted areas”.

Ms. Amaj is a business school graduate of Kardan University and holds Master’s degree in Business Administration from University of Nicosia, Cyprus. She has also obtained accredited training on “Policy and Institutional Analysis” from Rohr University Bochum, Germany, and Project Planning and Management from University of Virginia, United States.

Apart from her professional career, Ms. Amaj is interested in community and social development, and she has voluntarily mentored startups and helped them develop their concepts into business models. Recently, she was selected one of the 60 gender equality advocates from the MENA region to participate at the Swedish Institute’s Leader Lab Program 2019-2020.