Ms. Manal Taha, is an anthropologist and conflict analysis expert with over ten years of field research on security sector and countering violent extremism in a range of fragile states, including Libya, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and Sudan.

Manal is currently working for the United State Institute of Peace (USIP) as a contracting officer with the Africa team providing program and research support in several countries including Tanzania, the Central Africa Republic and Sudan. She was also a former Senior Fellow at the USIP.

She uses critical lenses, such as gender, social strata, history and natural resources to inform her research and programming in areas affected by conflict or/and violent extremism. In light of that, she's conducted fieldwork on the role of women in CVE and looked at the specific social and cultural changes leading to women’s radicalization and participation in VE in East African communities. Manal has also conducted research on Matriarchal and Tribal Identity, Community Resilience, and Vulnerability in South Libya. Ms. Taha also worked on a State Department (CSO) funded project focussed on security sector reform in Libya.

She has two Master degrees, a Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution from the School for International Training (SIT) in Brattleboro, Vermont and a Master of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Khartoum in Sudan.   

Recent publication and presentations:

• "Matriarchal and Tribal Identity, Community Resilience, and Vulnerability in South Libya," USIP Special Report, December 2017. Media broadcast.
• “Masculinities, Matriarchy, and Resistance to Violent Extremism.” Paper presented at the International Study Association (ISA) International Convention, Baltimore, Maryland, 2017.
• “Role of Tribal and Customary Law in Stability in the Sahel Region.” Paper presented at the International Peace Convention in Geneva, invited as a Small Arms Expert, Switzerland, October 2017. 
• “On ISIS and the Security Situation in Libya.” Presentation given at the annual meeting of the Minerva Research Initiative, Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia, September 2016.
• “How, Why, When and Where do People Get Radicalized?” Broadcast through LIS Translation, Brooklyn, New York, July 2016, 
• “Local Governance in Niger.” Lecture given at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington.

Ms. Manal Taha is an American citizen of Sudanese decent.