Sonia Panzani
Managing Director
Sonia Panzani has dedicated more than 20 years to developing health and social care services and improving access to them. She holds qualifications in public international law, human rights and applied foreign languages.
For 15 years, she led development programmes across Central America, Eastern Europe and West Africa, including 12 years with the Terre des hommes Foundation in Lausanne. With expertise in digital health and support for children in vulnerable situations, she has helped scale up innovative approaches and embed them in public policy.
Following her role as Head of Country Action for the 67 member countries of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, whose Secretariat is hosted by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), she joins Graines de Paix as Executive Director, continuing her longstanding commitment to children and young people.
Joining Graines de Paix was a natural choice. We share a common vision: developing life skills and rejecting all forms of violence have been guiding principles throughout my career. For children and young people to reach their full potential, academic learning must go hand in hand with a caring and inclusive environment. Interpersonal skills and the ability to manage emotions can be learnt; they help foster a culture of respect for others. Achieving lasting change in education requires bringing many different stakeholders together. It is a considerable challenge, and I look forward to taking it on.