The African Leadership Institute has a very strong cohort of emerging African leaders for the prestigious Tutu Leadership Fellowship for 2019. Amongst nearly 250 nominees of outstanding quality from more than 30 African countries, 23 of Africa’s highest potential new leaders were selected to take part in the programme. Including the candidates nominated by our sponsoring organisations, the candidates represent 12 different African countries, ranging in age 25 to 39 years of age, and span several industries. The selected candidates demonstrate the incredible wealth and breadth of leadership talent that exists in Africa’s youth.
The biographies of the 2019 candidates follow:
- Mical Agina
- Debisi Araba PhD
- Marcia Ashong
- Edwine Barasa PhD
- Mohammed Barry
- Issam Chleuh
- Akim Daouda
- Sangu Delle JD
- Dr Angela Gichaga
- Ronak Gopaldas
- Lesego Holzapfel
- Samson Itodo
- Dhiren Mansingh
- Simbarashe Mhungu
- Simbarashe Mhuriro
- Makgola Makololo
- Robin Miller
- Uzoma Nwagba
- Vivian Onano
- Mohamed Osman
- Akintunde Oyebode
- Lalaina Randriarimanana
- Emilia Siwingwa
Mical Agina
Kenya
Mical Maganda Agina is the Group Head of Tax at Centum Investment Company Plc. Her role at Centum includes Tax Planning and Management; and recently, to support of the Director of Legal Affairs & Group Company Secretary adding legal, tax and company secretarial support to the group. Over the period of her service at Centum, Mical has been instrumental in key initiatives including participation in the Centum Bond Issue for over $60 million dollars; negotiation and completion of investment agreements with business partners in the Two Rivers project; and acquisition of a majority stake at K-Rep Bank Limited. Early in her career she worked as a legal intern at the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) where she helped the legal and justice division on infringement of human rights, extra-judicial killings and torture cases through media monitoring, and took part in campaigns and advocacy against torture.She is passionate about mentorship of youth and has been involved in various community engagements to listen to the youth; support initiatives for their well-being; and positively impact their lives with mentoring and coaching. She is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, with eight years post-admission experience; having attained a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Nairobi. She earned an MBA in Strategic Management from the University of Nairobi in 2013. She is also a Certified Public Accountant of Kenya (CPA-K) and a Certified Public Secretary of Kenya (CPS-K).
Debisi Araba PhD
Nigeria
Debisi Araba is a public policy and strategy specialist. He is the Africa Region Director at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT); and a member of the CGIAR, the consortium on international agriculture research. CIAT works to increase prosperity and improve human nutrition in the tropics through research-based solutions in agriculture and the environment. He is also a member of the Malabo Montpellier Panel of experts, a distinguished group of global thought and practice leaders working together to enable better government support of national and regional agricultural development and food security priorities in Africa. From 2012 to 2015, he served as the Senior Technical Adviser on Environmental Policy to the Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria, where he helped form the Environment and Climate Change Unit and co-authored Nigeria’s National Agricultural Resilience Framework, the first of its kind in the world. He led global and national partnerships on insurance and climate-smart strategies for the agricultural sector. In 2014, Debisi co-founded of the Visiola Foundation, which exists to support the emergence of a new cadre of African leaders by mentoring and training academically excellent youth, particularly women, in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields.
Marcia Ashong
Ghana
Marcia Ashong is Founder and Executive Director of TheBoardroom Africa (TBR Africa), and Brace Energy. TBR Africa an initiative that champions women in executive leadership across Africa by working with private equity investors, development finance institutions, and companies to improve female representation in boardrooms and investment committees. Under her leadership, TBR Africa has successfully created the largest network of board-ready women in Africa, placed several women leaders to boards across the continent, and recently secured $2 million in funding.
Brace Energy is a nascent pan-African oil and gas service company that is fully licensed to operate in Ghana and Uganda. Marcia has a varied background in international energy, petroleum law, and extensive work experience in the upstream oil and gas service industry, holding leadership roles across four continents. In 2010, she founded the Ghana Oil Club, a professional organization aimed at providing a forum for petroleum and energy professionals, as well as an avenue for active dialogue about Ghana's Petroleum and Energy sectors. In 2017, she was named amongst Ghana's top 20 Under 40 business leaders. In 2014, she was awarded a research grant from the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN). She has been published in the Oxford Journal of World Energy Law, where she has made contributions on global trends in local content regulations in oil and gas. She is also part of the HATCH Global Network.
Edwine Barasa PhD
Kenya
Edwine Barasa is the director of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Nairobi programme in Kenya, heads the Health Economics Research Unit (HERU), and co-chairs the health systems research theme of the programme. He is a health economist and health financing specialist with 14 years of experience in research, an advisory capacity, and practice in Kenya and the broader Sub-Saharan African region. He has a PhD in health economics (University of Cape Town), a Master’s degree in Health Economics (University of Cape Town), and a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy (University of Nairobi). Edwine’s interests include health financing, equity and efficiency analysis in healthcare, the economics of non-communicable diseases, economic evaluation of healthcare interventions, measuring health systems' performance, and health system governance. Edwine provides health financing and broader health system technical support to the Kenya Ministry of Health. He is currently a member of the Kenya Health Benefits Advisory Panel and the taskforce for the reform of the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF). Edwine also provides health financing technical advisory support to several international development organizations, including the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), with a focus on the broader Sub-Saharan African region including Kenya, Ghana, Somalia, Malawi, Madagascar, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Mozambique, and Egypt.
Mohammed Barry
The Gambia
Mo Barry Mo Barry is a global health practitioner from The Gambia. He is a board member of the Medicines Patent Pool, and an advisor to the World Health Organisation on Universal Health Coverage. Prior to this, he worked for the United Nations in Myanmar and co-Chaired the Community Program of the 20th International AIDS Conference in Australia. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Global Health from York University in Canada and studied at the African Leadership Academy in South Africa.
Issam Chleuh
Mali
Issam Chleuh is Co-Founder and Managing Director at Suguba, a disruptive platform fostering regional integration, regional trade and unleashing entrepreneurial talent across Francophone Africa. Issam's experience - spanning 10 years - has been focused on launching successful entrepreneurial ventures, structuring funds, configuring financial reporting and ESG systems, leading transactions, due diligence & valuations, managing stakeholders, and building networks. During his career he has led more than USD $500 million in commitments to funds globally. Prior to starting Suguba, he was Fund Manager at the Islamic Development Bank. There, he invested in Private Equity funds across Africa and Southeast Asia, structured the first Venture Capital fund in Saudi Arabia, and the first global Trade Finance fund of ITFC. He also structured Trade Finance deals for governments in Africa and South America. Issam started his career in Boston in private equity at HarbourVest Partners and Ernst & Young. Outside of his work in early-stage financing, Issam sits on the Board of Africa Development University (ADU). Issam holds a Bachelor’s in Finance and Accounting from Suffolk University Boston, a Master of Science in Accountancy from the University of Notre Dame and an Executive Certificate in Private Equity and Venture Capital from Harvard Business School.
Akim Daouda
Gabon
Akim Daouda is the Chief Investment Officer of the Gabonese Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) which has as its mission to secure a solid saving base for the future generations. He manages the SWF’s full portfolio of USD $1.6 billion in assets under management. He works closely with government entities and private-sector champions on issues related to economic development, industrial growth and transformation. Additionally, he has been appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Gabon Power Company, an independent power producer platform. The company develops a portfolio of more than USD 1 billion in projects. These include adding on to the grid more than 200 MW of electricity, providing electricity to more than 80,000 households, and drinking water to more than 600,000 people across the country. Akim sits on several boards and is the Chairman of the Board of Asonha Energy, a joint venture set up between Gabon Power Company and Meridiam to bridge the energy gap in Gabon. He began his career with Commerzbank in Frankfurt and HSBC in Paris as Manager for Structured Trade Finance in the MENA region. In 2018, Akim joined the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders community. He was also selected by Forbes Africa among the Top 10 Choiseul 100 Africa.
Sangu Delle JD
Ghana
Sangu Delle is an entrepreneur, investor and author. He is the Managing Director of Africa Health Holdings, an innovative company based in West Africa, focused on what it calls, 'building Africa's healthcare future'. He also serves as Chairman of Golden Palm Investments Corporation (GPI); an investment holding company focused on building world-class technology companies in Africa. GPI has backed startups such as Andela, mPharma and Flutterwave. Sangu is also the co-founder of Cleanacwa, a nonprofit working in underdeveloped communities in Ghana to make sure that water and sanitation - basic human rights - are provided. He is a Trustee of the Peddie School; a member of the Harvard Medical School Global Health and Service Advisory Council; an Elected Director of Harvard University's Alumni Association; and an advisory panel member for AXA. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Highest Honors) in African Studies and Economics from Harvard College, a Doctor of Law from Harvard Law School, and a Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He is admitted to practice law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
Dr Angela Gichaga
Kenya
Dr. Angela Gichaga is the CEO of the Financing Alliance for Health, which serves Ministries of Health and Ministries of Finance globally in building resilient and sustainably-financed health systems. It does so through increasing and better allocating existing resources, while tapping into the private sector through innovative finance. She has an undergraduate degree in Medicine, Master’s in Health Economics and Policy, and a Fellowship in Public Sector Management. Angela has served as a clinician, health administrator, policy maker, academic, consultant, and government advisor. Angela served the MoH in Kenya as a District Medical Officer of Health (DMOH) and at a hospital in charge (MEDSUP) in both Meru and Garbatulla, leading 150 multi-disciplinary team members. She then joined the the MoH HQ, where she supported health financing policies, strategies and initiatives. Angela received the Australian Leadership Awards for Africa in 2012 and President Obama’s Mandela Washington Fellowship in 2014 in recognition of her exemplary leadership within the civil service and operational track record of excellence. From civil service, she joined McKinsey & Company’s Africa Delivery Hub (ADH) working on socio-economic and development issues across Africa before joining the Financing Alliance for Health. She was named one of Fortune's World’s Greatest Leaders in 2018.
Ronak Gopaldas
South Africa
Ronak Gopaldas is a political economist, “pracademic”, writer and speaker. His work focuses on the intersection of politics, economics, and business in Africa. He is a currently a Director at Signal Risk and a Fellow at the Centre for African Management and Markets at the Gordon Institute of Business Science. He was previously the Head of Country Risk at Rand Merchant Bank. Ronak is an alumnus of the Asian Forum on Global Governance as well as the young African Leadership Initiative. In 2016, he delivered a powerful TEDx talk entitled Embracing Africa: Beyond the Binaries. A prominent voice in print, radio and television in both the local and international media, Ronak has made frequent appearances on CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and CNBC Africa, and publishes regular opinion and analysis pieces. He has spoken at several the world’s top universities and at leading Africa-focused policy and business conferences as a moderator, panelist and keynote speaker. Ronak holds an MSc in Finance (Economic Policy) through the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He also has a BCom in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and a BCom (Honours) in Financial Analysis and Portfolio Management from the University of Cape Town.
Lesego Holzapfel
South Africa
Lesego Holzapfel is the co-founder and chairwoman of Raise the Children International, a registered nonprofit in South Africa, USA and UK, which identifies self-motivated orphans from impoverished and rural communities and mobilizes resources for these children to gain access to higher education that leads to employment and public service, with a high return on social investment. She also founded Bokamoso Impact Investments, a social enterprise dedicated to uplifting remote underdeveloped areas of South Africa through agriculture and entrepreneurship. After receiving her B.A. degree at the City College of New York and Masters degree at the London School of Economics as a Standard Bank Derek Cooper Scholar, Lesego spent time in Asia in impoverished communities exploring the ways in which entrepreneurship presents a sustainable way to lift whole communities economically and in the long-term. Lesego’s innovative work in various communities of South Africa has received international and local recognition. Her work has been featured in local and international research journals and media, and profiled on numerous media platforms. Her story has been shown in a documentary of Africa’s top women on FOX TV. Lesego has been invited to speak and share her story in various countries across the world including USA, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Botswana, Colombia and India. She was publicly recognised by President Jacob Zuma as a young Achiever and Trail blazer. In June 2017, she was honored by the Mail and Guardian as one of South Africa’s 200 young leaders. An honorary Golden Key Award was bestowed upon Lesego by the University of Pretoria for her servant leadership and work in developing South African youth. In 2018, Lesego won the Standard Bank Top women award, alongside noticeable icons like Yvonne ChakaChaka.
Samson Itodo
Nigeria
Samson Itodo is the Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, a community of change makers focused on building sustainable democracies in Africa anchored on the principles of inclusion, justice, accountability and constitutionalism. He plays a leading role in implementing the organization’s mission and objectives, which entail strategic planning, policy research and analysis, grant seeking and stakeholder engagement. He has 12 years of experience and expertise in elections management, legal research and analysis, parliamentary strengthening, constitution building and social movements. Sampson is the convener of the Not Too Young To Run movement that led the successful advocacy for the reduction of age limits for running for public office in the Nigerian constitution. The campaign was adopted by the United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS as a global campaign. He has facilitated the development of policy documents on electoral reform, international development cooperation, constitution review, public governance and political inclusion. He also provides strategic policy advice to parliamentary committees, electoral commissions, political parties, civil society organizations and academic institutions. Samson leads one of Nigeria’s largest citizens movement on electoral integrity, Watching The Vote. He has led international election observation missions to Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, United States of America and South Africa. The impact of his work earned him recognition from international and local organizations. He is a fellow of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape town; International Visitors Leadership Program of the US Department of State, Swedish Visitors Leadership Program and European Union Visitors Program (EUVP).
Dhiren Mansingh
South Africa
Dhiren Mansingh has almost 20 years’ experience working in the South African financial services sector and is currently Head of Treasury Sales and Structuring in the Corporate and Institutional Banking division of Investec. The team’s primary responsibility is assisting the bank's clients manage their treasury risks in relation to interest rates, foreign exchange, commodities, money markets and equities. The team also includes Investec Bank’s interest rate and foreign exchange trading desks. In addition to the above role, Dhiren is currently head of, and responsible for, developing the bank’s corporate transactional banking offering. This is a new initiative for Investec and plays to Dhiren’s passion for building new businesses and teams. He holds a BSc degree in Statistical Science and Economics from University of Cape Town, a BSc Honours degree in Statistical Science from the University of Natal, is a CFA Charter Holder, and completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.
Simbarashe Mhungu
Zimbabwe
Simba Mhungu is the Managing Director of HFG Advisory, a strategy and finance consulting firm serving global clients across industries and geographies. In Africa, Simba has advised clients - including Fortune 500 entities - on market entry into various African countries, including structuring some of Africa’s largest agribusiness transactions. He’s worked for the Walt Disney Company in Orlando Florida where he introduced prominent African beverages and shows to Disney’s theme parks and hotels. Simba has been featured on BBC World News commenting on African capital markets and Africa-China trade and debt dynamics. Simba has been a keynote speaker at the World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC and is the Co-Founder of the African Youth Commission, now one of the largest independent youth-focused organizations in Africa. He began his career as an investment banker in the equities division of Goldman Sachs in New York.
Simbarashe Mhuriro
Zimbabwe
Simba Mhuriro is the founder and Managing Director of Oxygen Energy Private Limited, an energy development company in Zimbabwe. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Entrepreneurship for 2018–2019 and also the Shared Value Africa Initiative’s Africa Council of Eight. Simba is also part of the expert working group of the Enterprise Africa Network, a project by the European Union & African Union to create a business platform to connect women and young entrepreneurs across the continent, modelled on the Europe Enterprise Network. In 2018, Simba was named by Forbes Magazine as one of Africa’s 30 most promising young entrepreneurs and in 2016, as one of Africa’s 30 most promising and inspirational young entrepreneurs in Africa by Forbes Magazine. Simba has been recognised by the Africa Youth Awards as one of 100 most Influential Young Africans of the year. AFK Insider magazine named him among 12 Most Promising African Entrepreneurs of 2016 whilst in 2017, Africa.com named him among 40 Africans Under 40 – Making It In Africa. The Africa Innovation Summit listed Simba’s project as one of the Top 50 Innovations in Africa for 2018. In October of 2018 the Institute Choiseul of France named Simba as one of Africa’s 200 Economic Leaders of Tomorrow.
Makgola Makololo
South Africa
Makgola Makololo is the Chief Director for Energy in the South African Government’s Department of Public Enterprises, with shareholder oversight on Eskom and the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR). Born in a village from Limpopo, Makgola is a qualified electrical engineer at Eskom and Sasol. She graduated with a BSc Elec Eng from University of KZN and MBA from GIBS.
She was elected as one of the top 80 emerging leaders in science and technology in Africa and the Middle East by the US State Department and participated in TechWomen in 2013, an exchange programme for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. She also serves as a non-executive director on the board of Zenzele Technology Center, an incubator of SEDA - the Small Enterprise Development Agency - that assists small-scale miners develop mining technologies and build sustainable businesses. She is a co-founder of STEM-IT-FWD an NGO that works to stimulate interest and support young black girls to take up a career in STEM.
Robin Miller
South Africa
Robin Miller is a Partner and founding member of Dalberg’s Africa Team. She also founded and leads the firm’s Global Digital Practice, which focuses on building initiatives that leverage digital platforms and data to drive inclusive growth. Robin’s day-to-day work includes advising national governments, co-designing solutions with innovators and entrepreneurs, and supporting regional and global investors and foundations on the effective deployment of capital. Within this portfolio of work, Robin co-leads Dalberg’s partnership with the Mastercard Foundation on Young Africa Works, an initiative that aims to ensure 30 million young people in Africa secure dignified and fulfilling work by 2030. Her work has included the design of last mile connectivity solutions for primary care clinics across Nigeria and banking agents in rural Kenya; as well as support to African governments in the design of digital transformation strategies and labor market information systems.
Prior to Dalberg, Robin co-founded Praekelt.org, a tech-enabled social enterprise that builds technology platforms to drive both social and economic growth. Since 2007, Praekelt.org platforms have reached over 100 million users across the continent with crucial information on issues such as maternal and child health, and youth employment. Robin has been recognized as a thought leader and expert on the topic of digital transformation on a range of global platforms including the BBC, Financial Times, World Economic Forum and was an inaugural member of the African Leadership Network.
Uzoma Nwagba
Nigeria
Uzoma Nwagba has built his expertise at the intersection of technology and finance. Today, he is the Chief Operating Officer of Nigeria’s Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), managing the world’s largest micro-credit scheme. GEEP to date has leveraged the power of a technology-driven operation to disburse and manage a portfolio of two million loans to underbanked Nigerians, demonstrating the biggest advancement of financial inclusion via credit in Africa. Uzoma started his career as an Analyst at Goldman Sachs, New York, and then proceeded to be a Product Manager at Microsoft, Redmond, where he received at Gold Star Award - one of the highest honours in the company - for his effective management and leading of a vast mobile technology team. Following an MBA at Harvard Business School, Uzoma returned to Nigeria to a career in private equity at African Capital Alliance, driving investments in financial services and healthcare. Then he took a turn to public service for a larger scale impact. Uzoma is passionate about running public enterprises like ethical, results-oriented businesses. In lighter settings, Uzoma plays the guitar and sings. He is also co-founder of Leadership Seed, an organisation focused on case-based teaching of ethics and governance in high schools.
Vivian Onano
Kenya
Vivian Onano is a social entrepreneur and seasoned humanitarian who is recognized as an emerging woman leader with the courage to lead change on the African continent. She has a strong commitment to education, women's economic empowerment, and leadership. Vivian has a deep interest in re-defining Africa’s growth and development and creating an inclusive world where women and youth can play an important role. Vivian is a youth advisor to Global Education Monitoring Report at UNESCO, and the Founder/Director at Leading Light Initiative. New African Woman Magazine featured her in 2016 as one of the 30 under 30: Faces Changing Africa Now and Forbes Woman Africa profiled her as One to Watch. Vivian is a recipient of the 2017 New African Woman on the Rise Award, and 2016 MTV Africa Re-Imagined Award. In 2015 she was honored with Mrs. Obama’s “Let Girls Learn” award by MORE Magazine for her advocacy work on girls’ education. Vivian is currently the vice-chair of the Global Youth Empowerment Fund Board of Trustees; is a Nutrition International board director; Women Deliver board member; a member of the Africa Shared Value Leadership Council; and a Concordia Africa advisor. Vivian is a respected speaker who often speaks on global education, gender equality, youth empowerment, and international development. She has presented at the United Nations General Assembly, World Innovation Summit for Education, The Global Education and Skills Forum, Concordia Summit and the Clinton Global Initiative, among others.
Mohamed Osman
Sudan
Mohamed Osman is General Manager of Inmaa for Poultry and Feed Co. Ltd, a Sudanese-Lebanese investment, and Sudan’s leading semi-integrated poultry operation. Mohamed has held this position since April 2016. Since joining the company, Mohamed has led a major restructuring of the company, that has resulted in substantially improving the company’s bottom line. Mohamed is very passionate about expanding business through introducing contract farming practices to empower small-scale farmers to grow agricultural inputs and in raising chickens. He believes that this will lead to more equitable growth, and more inclusive economic development. Prior to joining Inmaa, Mohamed was CEO of Nile Barges, a river transport company operating along the White Nile, the longest navigable stretch of the River Nile. That company is a subsidiary of Qalaa Holding, formerly Citadel Capita), one of Africa’s leading investment companies. Mohamed joined Qalaa Holding in 2009 and since then established river cargo transport operations between Sudan, South Sudan and Ethiopia. He is particularly interested in promoting peace and trade between Sudan and South Sudan, and within Africa in general. Mohamed was selected at the start of his career as a member of Dal Food Industries’ highly-selective Young Professionals Program. Dal Food is Sudan's Coca Cola bottler.
Akintunde Oyebode
Nigeria
Akintunde Oyebode is the Special Adviser, Investment, Trade and Innovation at Ekiti State Government, Nigeria, where he is responsible for leading the state government’s efforts to make Ekiti an attractive destination for investors and innovation-driven enterprises and to create jobs for young people. Prior to this, Akin was the Executive Secretary and CEO of the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund where he led the development of a USD $75 million programme to boost job creation in the state. Under his leadership, the fund disbursed $25 million to 10,000 small businesses; developed the largest technical and vocational training programme in the State; and implemented Lagos Innovates, a set of programmes that supported over 100 start-ups. In February 2019, LSETF was credited with creating over 90,000 jobs, through its interventions. He was also the pioneer Head of SME Banking at Stanbic IBTC Bank, the Nigerian subsidiary of Standard Bank, where he was responsible for building a customer base of 120,000 small businesses; a loan book of over $100 million; and SME BizDirect, the first branchless platform to manage SME clients.
Lalaina Randriarimanana
Madagascar
Lalaina Randriarimanana is the co-founder and the current General Coordinator of Liberty 32, a Malagasy volunteer-based organisation that works towards citizen empowerment. Passionate about education, she has been an educator since her early teenage years, with more than 20 years of involvement. She is engaged in different formal and non-formal initiatives, at local, national and international levels, as an activist with experience in management and development, monitoring and evaluation, institutional development and mentoring. Lalaina attended public schools in Madagascar from primary school until university where she graduated with a Masters in Economics. She won scholarships to further her studies in leadership in Madagascar and overseas, before heading to UK, to read Peace, Security and Development at King’s College, London. She continued at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London in their postgraduate Research Programme where she obtained an MSc. She has been a scholar of the African Leadership Centre; Mo Ibrahim Foundation; and the Programme For African Leadership of LSE. Her professional, academic and voluntary interests are people empowerment, education, youth, human security, leadership, development and peacebuilding. She considers herself an African citizen travelling on a Malagasy passport and is a fervent lover of Malagasy language.
Emilia Siwingwa
Tanzania
Emilia Siwingwa hails from Momba District in Tanzania and is deeply committed to the rule of law, social justice, and accountable development. She is a respected lawyer in Eastern and Southern Africa with more than a decade’s experience. She has served as a senior manager in national and regional law associations; worked on case strategy for landmark human rights cases in domestic and international courts; coordinated advocacy, fact-finding, and election-observation missions; published in law journals; and advocated for greater protections for human rights defenders. Emilia provides technical and advisory services as a legal and development consultant. Her client profile includes Protimos UK, GIZ and USAID. She also volunteers her time to work directly with communities and community-based organizations in Africa to build their capacity to respond effectively to harmful development projects and human rights violations. Emilia was the youngest member of the Board of the Law School of Tanzania at the time, appointed by the Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs. Emilia has served on several NGO Boards, and is an American Bar Foundation Fellow.
Selection Process
The 2019 Fellows comprise candidates selected through a competitive, open nomination and selection process, as well as candidates nominated by our sponsoring organisations – the Mastercard Foundation, GIZ - on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) - Investec, Centum and Dalberg.
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