Sara Clarke-Habibi

In collaboration with the United Nations Peacebuilding and Peace Support Office (PBPSO), Dr Habibi works to strengthen alignment and collaboration between Geneva-based human rights, humanitarian, peacebuilding actors and multilateral peacebuilding processes in New York. Her work focuses on cross-pillar integration through knowledge exchange, policy analysis, and interagency collaboration on conflict prevention and sustaining peace.

She is a conflict and peacebuilding specialist with over 20 years’ experience across United Nations (UN) entities, international development agencies, policymakers, civil society, and conflict-affected communities.

Prior to joining UNU-CPR, Dr Habibi worked with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Division for Peace, supporting capacity-building initiatives on mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) in UN peacekeeping missions in Africa, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and justice reform in Mali, development cooperation in Rwanda, and women’s leadership for peace in Ukraine. She also led the establishment of the Science for Peace (S4P) Africa Initiative.

Dr Habibi has led and supported multistakeholder peacebuilding processes globally, including the co-creation of a Regional Roadmap for Arab States to operationalise the UNESCO 2023 Recommendation, and regional initiatives on remembrance, reconciliation, and youth peacebuilding in the Western Balkans. Earlier, she coordinated Bosnia and Herzegovina’s first post-war Education for Peace initiative.

Her research bridges humanitarian, development and peacebuilding perspectives, with a focus on community-based peacebuilding, trauma-informed approaches, and the multigenerational impacts of conflict and forced displacement. She regularly trains civil society and international organizations and has published widely, including the Routledge International Handbook on Trauma-Responsive Peacebuilding (2026).