Zaliha Abdulhamid Lawal is a community development practitioner, an advocate of social equality, and a conflict management researcher. She currently works with Connected Development as Deputy Director Programs and a focal person on Sustainable Development Goals. She led the MacArthur On Nigeria Project and currently leading the Malala Fund Girl-child Education Project. She is a Kashim Ibrahim Fellow. 

She is a member of the advisory board of TransparencIT, and chairs the board of Spotlight Transparency and Accountability Initiative amongst others. Zaliha is a member of the Youth Advisory Group for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and a member of the Open Government Partnership.  She holds a BSc and MSc in Public Administration and is a certified project manager from the prestigious Project Management Institutute.  Her goal is to have a Nigerian system where meritocracy comes first, where people in the most remote part of the country have access to social amenities and can hold the government accountable. Her dedication to serving marginalised communities gave her the Young Impact Maker Award 2019 and a Global Juror for the 5th Global Entrepreneur Awards on the SDGs. 

She enjoys travelling, negotiating and event planning.