Maha Khan is Financial Sector Lead with the Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAST) initiative, a project based at United Nations University Centre for Policy Research.
Hailing from Pakistan, Maha has over 15 years of experience spearheading and managing multimillion dollar research and strategic operations programmes in 15 countries across Asia and Africa, focusing on inclusive finance and technology for good. Prior to joining UNU-CPR, Maha led Accion, Center for Financial Inclusion’s (CFI) FinTech data initiatives that bridge the information gap between financial service providers, investors, and donors. Maha brings deep experience building partnerships between the public and private sectors to address the real needs of low-income and marginalized populations as well as an understanding of the enabling environment needed to catalyse change for these populations. Maha is a firm believer in the meaningful use of technology and finance and how they can help produce multiple outcomes for low-income populations. She has published numerous blogs, articles, and research papers on these topics.
Prior to CFI, Maha was the Director of Insights for the GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Programme (M4H) and Senior Manager for the Mastercard Foundation Partnership for Finance in a Digital Africa at Caribou Digital. In 2015, Maha designed a USD 4 million digital cash transfer programme for the UN World Food Programme in Ethiopia. Before that, she served as the Domain Lead of Business Analytics for the Helix Institute of Digital Finance at MicroSave Africa.
Research Interests
- Human trafficking
- International finance
- Modern Slavery
