Gail Greezakwah Farngalo served as Team Leader on Human Rights in the office of the President of the seventy-sixth (76th) session of the General Assembly OPGA).
Her untimely departure has left a deep void. Her rich experience, affable nature, friendship, warmth & exuberance is something we will cherish.
She previously served as Senior Adviser and Deputy Team Leader for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs and Lead on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in the Office of the President of the Seventy-fifth (75th) Session of the General Assembly (OPGA), H. E. Mr. Volkan Bozkir of the Republic of Turkey.
Prior to joining the OPGA, Gail served as a diplomat in the Permanent Mission of Liberia to the United Nations for ten years representing Liberia on the Third Committee (Social Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs). She also served in other capacities; as Election Officer and as a liaison for military, police, and corrections affairs (supporting Liberia’s peacekeeping efforts in UN Peace-keeping Missions), as well as focal person for all gender and Third Committee related matters.
With the responsibility of covering health issues in the Liberian Mission, Gail served as focal per-son and coordinator of the Mission’s engagements during the Ebola epidemic, participating in the United Nations preliminary response coordination meetings as well as meetings of the Ebola Multi-partner Trust Fund and successive meetings of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s Panel on Health Systems Strengthening in the wake of the Ebola Health crisis.
Gail played an active role in the Third Committee African Group at the United Nations. She served as facilitator for the Group’s sponsored resolutions on Malaria and on Refugees and Dis-placed Persons in Africa. Under the umbrella of the African Group, Gail has served as Vice President of the Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality (UN Women), and a member of the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Gail was also charged with coordinating Liberia’s participation in its capacity as Vice President of the Bureau of the Conference of States Parties (COSP) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). In her capacity as Vice Chair of the Bureau of the Third Committee for the Seventy-fourth (74th) Session of the UNGA, Gail was charged with the facilitation of the an-nual Chair’s resolution on the Follow up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and the Full Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. She also had an active role in Liberia’s Chairmanship of the Commission on the Status of Women for the term, 2012-2013. She has built an expansive network with Member States, Civil Society, and the UN Secretariat.
Gail commenced her diplomatic work at the Permanent Mission of Liberia to the United Nations in 2010 and dove in to contribute to the mandate (aimed at tangibly ensuring that Liberia regained its rightful place in the comity of nations and in the work of the United Nations, from which it had been absent for the most part, particularly following fourteen years of civil upheaval. Her prior employment was in managed healthcare. Gail has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the American University in Cairo, Egypt and a Master’s of Public Administration Degree with emphasis in Development Administration from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.
