Ms Dawood has been actively engaged internationally in key issues related to human rights and international justice, social, economic and legal reform and the promotion of independent media. She has written for the media and presented widely at conferences and seminars and has been actively engaged in issues related to foreign policy and international relations, through the South African Foreign Policy Initiative, which she founded in 2011.
She has been a Professional Associate of the Zamyn since November 2013, which is an independent analytical organisation working at the intersection of socio-economic, political and cultural theory and practice.
Ms Dawood was asked to join AgangSA in 2013, under the leadership of Dr Mamphela Ramphele for a period of six months. This involved establishing a new political platform to strengthen democracy in South Africa.
Before joining the FW de Klerk Foundation as Director of the Centre for Unity in Diversity, Ms Dawood had stepped out of her comfort zone to assume the position of Business Development and Fundraising Executive at the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO). This entailed managing the business strategy and fundraising drive for the CPO, including addressing issues of diversity, building career paths for talented musicians and crucially ensuring the financial sustainability of the CPO, which has gone from an organisation perpetually in the red to one that is growing its endowment fund.
