Magnea Marinósdóttir

Thematic expertise:  Professional experience in the field of international development and humanitarian affairs specialising in women‘s rights, gender equality and mainstreaming, the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda, and refugee issues.

Geographic expertise:  East Africa, Central Asia, Middle East and Western Balkans.

Languages:  English, Danish and Icelandic

Magnea Marinósdóttir is an independent consultant with a wide-ranging experience from working with and within political, public and private institutions and organisations in Iceland and internationally. 

Her international experience includes working for the ISAF Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan; UN Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo; Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation as the head of its Jerusalem office in the occupied State of Palestine and State of Israel; and the Addressing Sexual Violence Team of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.

In Iceland, Magnea has been with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs; Embassies of the United States and Japan; the International Department of Parliament; the Equality Team of the Ministry of Welfare - later the Department of Equality of the Prime Minister’s Office; and the Refugee Reception Programs of the municipalities of Hafnarfjörður and Reykjavík .

She has also served on various boards including as founding member and chair of the Association of Political Scientists in Iceland; deputy chair of the National Committee of UNIFEM (now UN Women) and the editor-in-chief of the publication of Varðberg - Association of Western Collaboration and International Affairs - an issue dedicated to humanitarian intervention (military intervention motivated by humanitarian concerns).

After graduating with a B.A. degree in Political Science from the University of Iceland and Copenhagen University, Magnea received a Fulbright Grant and International Fellowship from the Association of American University Women to pursue graduate study at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington D.C. While studying, Magnea was granted a Mellon Foundation Research fellowship from the Institute for the Study of International Migration in partnership with the Centre for the Study of Forced Migration at the University of Dar es Salaam to conduct research on intervention strategies to combat sexual and gender-based violence among refugees in Tanzania. 

Magnea is a Red Cross delegate and has taken various post-graduate courses among other things with the Transitional Justice Institute - Ulster University, ICRC, IFRC, OCHA and UNHCR. She has also designed and delivered courses at universities in Iceland including the UNESCO affiliated Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme (GRÓ-GEST) and at the World in Transition Programme at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland.