Bandana Rana is one of the key leaders of the women’s movement in Nepal. Her experience spans three decades of promoting women’s rights and gender equality through organizations and networks she founded and led. She has worked from grass roots to national, regional and global levels in programmes for combating gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls. She has extensive experience in leading advocacy programmes linking United Nations frameworks provided by the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), International Conference on Population and Development and Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. As a broadcast journalist for two decades, she has led communication and media programming for addressing gender stereotypes and changing mindsets. She has convened numerous dialogues for strengthening coherence and partnership between government entities and women’s organizations. She is the former Chair of the National Women’s Commission Nepal.

Rana is currently the Vice-Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women Committee. She is the recipient of the 2016 Woman of Distinction Award conferred by the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York (NGO CSW/NY) for her dedicated work and contribution to gender equality globally. She was a member of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Group for the Global Study on the Implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and a member of UN-Women’s Global Civil Society Advisory Group from 2012 to 2015.