Rita Soares is a gender equality, women and girl’s rights specialist with over two decades of experience in the international sector.
As Director of Learning and Impact, Rita provides leadership and management of Girls Not Brides’ global learning, evidence, movement building, regional implementation and impact delivery. She manages a high performing team based in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and the United Kingdom.
Rita formerly led Oxfam Great Britain's programmatic work on Gender Justice and Women's Rights, focusing on three functions: program impact, thought leadership and external influencing. She also worked as co-editor of the “Gender and Development Journal”, a unique journal aiming to inspire and influence development policy and practice, promoting social justice and gender equality.
She has lived in 10 countries and worked in global and regional positions with international non-governmental organisations and gender networks, covering work in Africa, Asia, LAC and the Middle East and North Africa regions.
Rita holds two Master’s degrees in Development Studies. She speaks English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. She is passionate about collective power to achieve transformative change for girls and women.