Executive Director

Her involvement in the women’s movement started in 1984 when she intensely participated in discussions on labor and land eviction issues. This later influenced the establishment of the women’s organization, Kalyanamitra in 1985, as Sita also became concern with gender awareness education. Sita is active both at the national and international scene, she was a member of Asia Pacific Women, Law and Development (1988-1996) and Global Fund for Women (1989-1996). Sita has been speaker as well as participant in various meetings, such as the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (1994) and the 1995 UN Women’s Conference in Beijing. In 1996-1997, Sita attained her Master’s degree on gender studies from The London School of Economic and Social Science, England. When she returned to Indonesia in 1997, along with a number of colleagues, Sita established INSIST (Institute for Transformative Social Sciences) in Yogyakarta.

During the refomation era, Sita was intensely involved in the advocacy of victims of violence, beginning with victims of sexual violence of the 1998 May Tragedy. At the beginning of the establishment of The National Commission on Violence Against Women, Sita worked in their “Strengthening the Capacity of Service Provider Organizations for Women Victims of Violence”. Two years later, Sita embarked on a new endeavor, holding the position of Program Manager of “Indonesia Masa Depan”, an initiative of The National Commission on Human Rights. Her task was to manage a “scenario planning” of the best and worst situation of Indonesia in year 2010.

On 2001-April 2004, Sita who is also the mother of four children, became program advisor for UNDP’s Partnership Program. Since 2001, Sita received many requests from various organizations, such as ILO, TIFA, dan Elsam, and also Hickling, to serve as consultant and gender evaluator. Since 2002 to this moment, Sita is active in the Women Research Institute which aims to expand into a study and research center founded on gender perspective, for the purpose of observing the impact of decentralization on the daily lives of women.***