Vanda Younan-Handal is a Child Protection and Safeguarding Specialist with over 20 years of leadership and technical experience in humanitarian and development settings. Her work focuses on strengthening child protection and safeguarding systems, with expertise spanning gender-based violence, education, partner capacity building, and inclusion of persons with disabilities. She brings an integrated, systems-oriented approach to translating policy into effective, context-responsive practice.
Vanda has held senior leadership roles with international organizations including Terre des Hommes and World Vision International, where she led multi-sectoral programme design, implementation, and evaluation and worked closely with governments, UN agencies, and civil society partners. As an affiliate consultant with Maestral International and other clients, she supports national and regional actors to design multisectoral strategies, action plans and operational procedures, with a particular emphasis on strengthening the social service workforce, embedding safeguarding, and promoting child and community engagement across service delivery systems. Vanda holds a Master’s degree in International Cooperation and Development and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Accounting. She is currently undertaking a second master’s degree in Advanced Child Protection. She is fluent in Arabic and English. She is based in Palestine.