Esther Lalai (NGR)

Esther is a PSEAH and gender-based violence (GBV) specialist with more than ten years of experience across humanitarian, emergency and development settings. She has worked in Ethiopia, Pakistan, Nigeria and other contexts across Africa and Asia. With UNFPA, UNHCR, the International Rescue Committee and Norwegian Church Aid, she has progressed from frontline survivor-centred case management to national coordination and technical leadership. This gives her a practical understanding of safeguarding from the perspective of both survivors and institutions.

Esther has worked directly with survivors of sexual exploitation, abuse and GBV. Her expertise covers confidential referral pathways and inter-agency referral systems, risk assessment and mitigation, complaints mechanisms, and policy and SOP development. It also includes capacity strengthening and multi-stakeholder coordination. She applies ethical information management, data analysis, dashboards and trend analysis to inform programming, advocacy and decision-making. Esther consistently places survivors’ safety, dignity and choice at the centre of the systems she helps to build.