Ibrahim Awad is at present professor of practice in global affairs and director, Center for Migration and Refugee Studies, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, at the American University in Cairo (AUC). He holds a BA degree in political science from Cairo University and a PhD degree in political science from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva, Switzerland. He has worked for the League of Arab States, the United Nations and the International Labour Organization (ILO), holding positions of secretary of the commission, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA), director, ILO sub-regional office for North Africa and director, ILO International Migration programme. He currently is chair of the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD), hosted by the World Bank, chair of the Steering Committee of the Euro-Mediterranean Research Network on International Migration (EuroMedMig) and senior fellow at the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He also serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals.