Humanitarian Career Exploration Session with Liwliwa Orcales Agbayani, of the International Committee of the Red Cross

The Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs introduces an online series focused on career exploration for Fordham University undergraduate and graduate students interested in social justice and humanitarian careers. Students of all majors and minors are invited to join a one hour Zoom video conference and ask questions during the Q&A to learn about the career journeys, current work, and field experiences from humanitarian professionals and Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs Alumni.

The host of this session will be Liwliwa “Liw” Orcales Agbayani, Protection Delegate, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Liw began her humanitarian career in 2013 as protection legal adviser in the ICRC Philippine delegation where she designed and implemented systemic projects to decrease overcrowding in jails by promoting judicial guarantees and improving criminal justice actors’ response. In this role, she managed a Supreme Court of the Philippines endorsed-initiative in the city of Manila called “Task Force Katarungan at Kalayaan,” monitoring and promoting the timely disposal of cases for unsentenced prisoners in lengthy detention. This initiative was institutionalized by the Philippine Government in 2016.

Agbayani is currently in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria where she is on her fourth month of her 12-month mission as child protection delegate. In her current role, Agbayani participates in, and contributes to the coherence of the response of ICRC Nigeria to the protection needs of minors affected by the situation of armed conflict in the Northeast, focusing on identifying and addressing child-protection issues across all other protection files in the Nigerian context.

Agbayani passed the 2004 Philippine Bar Examinations and has a literature degree. She has attended various international courses in project management, advocacy and policy influencing, sexual violence in armed conflict and emergencies among others. In June 2018, she received her international diploma in Humanitarian Assistance from Fordham University as part of IDHA 52.