IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM LONDON SOUND ARCHIVE
New Addition Autumn 2008
Post-conflict reconstruction specialist Lesley Abdela


A Woman in Post-Conflict Reconstruction – from Kosovo to Nepal, 1999-2008

The UK’s Lesley Abdela has become one of the world’s most experienced Gender post-deadly-conflict reconstruction consultants following
the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 2006 she was voted into the New Statesman’s Top 50 Heroes Of Our Time list (www.newstatesman.com/200605220016).

Fifty-six reels of her boots-on-the-ground experiences in Kosovo 1999/2000, attached to the OSCE, to Nepal 2007/2008, attached to UN OCHA, via Sierra Leone (British Council), Iraq (RTI/USAID), Afghanistan and Aceh (IOM), have just been recorded by Imperial War Museum archivist Lyn Smith*.

Lesley Abdela is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Society for Arts, and a member of the Chartered Institute of Journalists.

Her coordinates are tel. +44 1435 882 655, mobile +44 (0)7967 650 155. lesley.abdela@shevolution.com

Other material on Lesley Abdela’s work in fragile states can be found on search engines, viz www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=lesley+abdela+post +conflict&meta=

All members of the public can listen free of charge to these or any of the IWM’s other recordings at the Museum Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm. The reference number for the Lesley Abdela archive is 31557, which also appears on the IWM online database.

Facilities at the Imperial War Museum

NB. Facilities at the IWM are limited. It is important to contact the access team before visiting: direct tel. +44 207 416 5379 or email collections@iwm.org.uk. To make any search in the IWM Collections, go to www.iwmcollections.org.uk

Ordering recordings: the Imperial War Museum does not charge a fee for recordings but a charge is levied for copying the compact discs, at £10 per half-hour 'reel', and postage. The complete 56 reels recorded by Lesley Abdela would therefore cost £579 (approx US$850) including postage.
E-mail address for orders: photos@iwm.org.uk or enquiries Richard McDonough, Documentation & Liaison Officer, rmcdonough@iwm.org.uk

*Lyn Smith’s publications include ‘Forgotten Voices of the Great War’, ‘Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust’, ‘Young Voices: British Children Remember the Second World War’ etc.

By Tim Symonds (195.149.45.221) on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - 2:56 pm: Edit Post

Lesley Abdela (see below) lives in Burwash, East Sussex.

The 2009 Winners of the Dods & Scottish Widows Women In Public Life Awards were announced at the Commonwealth Club London WC2 on Wednesday March 4th 2009

Lesley Abdela, Winner of the 2009 UK Woman Political Journalist of the Year


The winners were chosen by the votes of the Parliamentary Press Lobby, Members of Parliament, and Members of the House of Lords

For further information click on Lesley Abdela or for the winners of the other categories such as Woman Member of Parliament of the Year see www.womeninpubliclifeawards.co.uk/winner2009.html or call Christina Camilleri on +44 20 7091 7578 (Christina.Camilleri@dods.co.uk)

Last year’s woman Political Journalist Of The Year was BBC Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders, and in 2007 the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee.

The Awards, now in their third year, ‘aim to highlight the achievements of outstanding women role models amongst us’.

In May 2006 Lesley Abdela was voted 34th in the New Statesman’s Top 50 Heroes Of Our Time: http://www.newstatesman.com/200605220016