Betty Bigombe
Betty Oyella Bigombe has served as Uganda’s Special Envoy to South Sudan from 2019. Betty Bigombe plays a key role in conflict prevention and mediation in Africa. She is a member of the FemWise–Africa and Commonwealth women mediation networks. She led the peace and humanitarian efforts in northern Uganda, first in the 1990s as Minister […]
Karabo Mokgonyana
Karabo Mokgonyana is the first and former African Union Youth Ambassador for Peace for Southern Africa. She is a Legal and Development Practitioner that focuses on human rights protection, international trade and investment and peace and security.
Luanda Mpungose
Luanda Mpungose is a Programme Officer with the African Governance and Diplomacy Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg, South Africa. She undertakes research of youth development and policy participation, BRICS Cooperation and South Africa’s foreign policy. Luanda co-authored the UNICEF Youth Advocacy Guide.
Philani Mthembu
Dr Philani Mthembu is executive director at the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD). Prior to joining the IGD, he pursued a joint Doctor of Political Science programme with the Graduate School of Global Politics, Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), and the School of International Studies at Renmin University, Beijing (China). He co-founded the Berlin Forum on […]
Keenan Govender
Keenan is an Early Career Scholar with the United States Institute for Peace (USIP), researching China – Africa military cooperation, and a former African Leadership Centre Peace and Security Fellow based at King’s College London where he obtained a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding, with distinction. His dissertation, titled “Coup […]
Katharine Bebington
Katharine is a researcher in the Research Department at ACCORD. Katharine joined ACCORD in September 2020 as an intern and became a programme officer in 2021, before becoming a researcher in 2023. Born and raised in Durban, Katharine matriculated at Maris Stella School and furthered her education at the University of the Witwatersrand. At Wits, […]
‘Mukondeleli Mpeiwa
Mukondeleli Mpeiwa is Senior Policy Officer in the African Union (AU) Mediation Support Unit (MSU) and Coordinator: Panel of the Wise and FemWise – Africa Secretariat.
Awino Okech
Dr Awino Okech teaches at the Centre for Gender Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Her teaching and research interests lie in the nexus between gender, sexuality and nation/state making projects as they occur in conflict and post-conflict societies. Dr Okech anchors her broader political work in feminist movement support organisations […]
Funmi Olonisakin
Professor ‘Funmi Olonisakin is Vice-President and Vice-Principal International and Professor of Security, Leadership and Development at King’s. Professor ‘Fumni Olonisakin is a founding member of the African Leadership Centre (ALC), which aims to build the next generation of African scholars generating cutting edge knowledge for security and development in Africa. Prior to this, she was Director of […]
Catherine Samba Panza
H.E. Catherine Samba-Panza, co-chair of FemWise-Africa, served as the interim President of the Central African Republic from 2014 to 2016. She was the first woman to hold the post of head of state in the country, as well as the eighth woman in Africa to do so.