Katra Sambili
Katra Sambili is a Kenyan writer, policy strategist, and champion of women’s and youth leadership whose career bridges the UN system, justice-sector reform, and poetry. A Master of Science graduate in International Development from the University of Birmingham and an Edward S. Mason Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, she launched the Harvard Africa Women’s Network (HAWN) to sharpen African women’s voices in public speaking, media, and policy analysis; the network now mentors more than 350 students and alumni across five continents.
Earlier, Sambili was the inaugural Head of Secretariat for Kenya’s National Council on the Administration of Justice, coordinating reforms that streamlined case-tracking and expanded legal aid to remote counties. She has since advised UN Women, UNDP, UNICEF, and the UN Millennium Campaign on gender-responsive budgeting and youth engagement, and in 2024 joined the UN Secretariat in New York as a research-and-communications consultant on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Away from policy desks, Sambili publishes verse that explores belonging, faith, and social justice; her chapbook Songs from the Rift was shortlisted for the 2023 Brunel Prize for African Poetry. Through her digital platform Ink & Impact, she runs quarterly writing clinics and storytelling labs that equip young Africans with tools to shape civic discourse, affirming her belief that narrative power is the first step toward equitable change.