Yusra Qadir is the Chief Programs and Advocacy Officer at the Mothers Matter Canada. She arrived in Canada in August 2019 with extensive experience in international development, gender equality, and human rights. In her 5 years in Canada she has expanded programs for refugee and immigrant communities across the country, introduced various service delivery improvements, and built the innovation portfolio at the Mothers Matter Canada which tests community led solutions to Canada’s most pressing challenges like Gender Based Violence, localizing sustainable development and ensuring access to human rights – all while raising her young family, and navigating her own settlement process during COVID-19. She is a strong voice for women, mothers, and communities of color in Canada.
Yusra served on Canada’s official delegation to the United Nations for the Commission on the Status of Women in 2023 and to the High Level Political Forum on the Sustainable Development Goals in 2024. Prior to her engagement with Mother Matter Canada, she worked with the United Nations Development Programme and various other civil society organizations in Pakistan for advancing social inclusion, gender equality and human rights. Yusra holds a Master’s degree in Sociology and is an Erasmus Mundus fellow for her MS degree in Human Rights Practice from Europe.
