Ms Julie-Ann Guivarra

Ms Julie-Ann Guivarra is currently serving as Australia’s Ambassador for Gender Equality where her role is to advocate for gender equality internationally on behalf of the Australian Government. She is a senior career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and has served as Australia’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain, Andorra and Equatorial Guinea (2018 to 2020). In that particular role, Ms Guivarra became Australia’s first female indigenous Ambassador.

Ms Guivarra’s current appointment as Ambassador for Gender Equality reflects her passion and commitment in promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Ms Guivarra is a strong advocate for women’s equal participation in political, economic and social affairs. In this role, she works to advance global development, peace and stability by promoting gender equality and women’s leadership and decision-making at all levels.

Ms Guivarra has also served as Australia’s lead services negotiator for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) while she was Assistant Secretary of the South East Asia Investment and Services Branch. In Canberra she has also served as the Assistant Secretary of the South East Asia Analytical and Effectiveness Branch which provided strategic advice on overseas development assistance in South East Asia.

She has considerable multilateral experience, serving as the Counsellor (Agriculture) in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other trade related issues. She has published on trade issues: “WTO accession negotiations: Trends and results in agriculture plurilaterals”, WTO Accessions and Trade Multilateralism: Case Studies and Lessons from the WTO at Twenty (2015) and also on gender equality. Her overseas postings include New Delhi, Geneva and Madrid.

Ms Guivarra holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from James Cook University and Master of Arts (Foreign Affairs and Trade) from Monash University.