Ms. Yassine Fall is an economist from Senegal. She was the UNIFEM Senior Economic Advisor on secondment to the UN Millennium Project as Senior Policy Advisor on Gender Equality. She has 19 years of field and policy work experience including gender equality and social justice issues. Prior to her posting in New York she was the UNIFEM Regional Programme Director covering Francophone and Lusophone countries in West and Central Africa. She held the position of Executive Director of the Association of African Women for Research and Development for five years and played an important role in facilitating policy dialogue between African Governments and different women constituencies within Africa. She is a founding member of distinguished organizations including the Open Society Institute for West Africa, the Gender and Economic Reforms in Africa, the International Gender and Trade Network, and the Network of African Women Economists. She has been a consultant to the Netherlands Cooperation agency, CIDA Canada, UNDP, UNIFEM, FAO, WFP, UNHCR UNESCO and ILO on issues such as gender and development, macroeconomic policy assessment, international trade policies and agreements, debt relief and poverty reduction strategies, emergency relief operations, food security, natural resources management, and land tenure.