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Musimbi Kanyoro | |
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| Born | 30 November 1953 (age 70) |
| Nationality |  Kenya |
| Known for | President/CEO, Global Fund for Women |
| Notable work | Feminist Cultural Hermeneutics |
Musimbi Kanyoro (born 30 November 1953) is a Kenyan-born human rights advocate, social activist and feminist theologian who is known for her cross-cultural leadership in international organizations. [1] She is a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians ("the Circle") and its first coordinator (1996-2002). [2] She is also the first woman from Global South to lead the oldest and largest women's ecumenical organization ( World Young Women's Christian Association). She was the CEO and President of the Global Fund for Women from 2011 - 2019, and serves as the chairperson of the International Board of the United World Colleges.
Musimbi was born in Migori County, Kenya where she attended primary school before joining Alliance Girls School in Nairobi. Being in a girls only space built her confidence in her early life and gave her the assurance that girls can become what they want. [3] As a student in the 1970s, she supported the movement against apartheid in South Africa which led her to fight for women and girls". [4] [5]
She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Nairobi and a Ph D in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin. Musimbi later earned a doctorate in feminist theology at the San Francisco Theological Seminary, [6] and has received three honorary doctorate degrees. She was also a visiting scholar of Hebrew and the Old Testament at Harvard University. [7]
Musimbi was the Executive Secretary, Desk for Women in Church and Society at the Lutheran World Federation from 1982 to 1997. [8] Kanyoro also edited the book In Search of a Round Table: Gender, Theology and Church Leadership, in 1998. [9] She also worked as a translation consultant for the United Bible Societies. From 1998 to 2007, Kanyoro became the first woman from the continent of Africa to serve as the YWCA's World Secretary General. [5]
Kanyoro was director of the Population and Reproductive Health Program of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation from 2007 to 2011. [10] She was a member of the International Steering Committee for the Beijing World Conference and led delegations to five UN World Conferences in the 1990s. From 2018 until 2019, she served on an Independent Commission on Sexual Misconduct, Accountability and Culture Change at Oxfam, co-chaired by Zainab Bangura and Katherine Sierra. [11] Musimbi Kanyoro was the president and CEO of Global Fund for Women from 2011 to 2019. [12]
Kanyoro has also served in several boards including the Aspen Leaders Council, the CARE Board, the UN High Level Taskforce for Reproductive Health, UN Women Civil Society Advisory Board, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)’s Scientific Advisory Board [13] and the International Board of the United World Colleges. [14]
Musimbi also works with former President of Ireland Mary Robinson on several projects, including the Board of Directors of Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative.
Kanyoro served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the African Population and Health Research Centre, and was for seven years the chair of the board of ISIS Work. She also serves on the boards of CARE, [18] Intra Health, [19] CHANGE and Legacy Memory Bank, [20] and is a member of the World Health Organization.
Calestous Juma was a Kenyan scientist and academic, specializing in sustainable development. He was named one of the most influential 100 Africans in 2012, 2013 and 2014 by the New African magazine. He was Professor of the Practice of International Development and Faculty Chair of the Innovation for Economic Development Executive Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Juma was Director of the School's Science, Technology and Globalization Project at Harvard Kennedy School as well as the Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian economist, who has been serving as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization since March 2021. She is the first woman and first African to lead the World Trade Organization as Director-General.
The Global Fund for Women is a non-profit foundation funding women's human rights initiatives. It was founded in 1987 by New Zealander Anne Firth Murray, and co-founded by Frances Kissling and Laura Lederer to fund women's initiatives around the world. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Since 1988, the foundation has awarded over $100 million in grants to over 4,000 organizations supporting progressive women's rights in over 170 countries. Ms. Magazine has called the Global Fund for Women "one of the leading global feminist funds."
DSW is an international private non-profit foundation addressing Sexual & Reproductive Health (SRH) and population dynamics. DSW funds its project and advocacy work from private donations and the financial support of governments, foundations and other organisations. It has its headquarters in Hanover, Germany.
Marleen Temmerman is a Belgian gynaecologist, professor and former Senator, currently heading the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health at Aga Khan University in Nairobi, Kenya.
Christopher J. Elias is the president of Global Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since 2012, and the former president and CEO of the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, also known as PATH, a nonprofit organization that improves global health by ensuring that innovations in science and technology are available to low income groups and developing countries, a role he held from 2000-2011.
Geetanjali Misra is the co-founder and executive director of Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action, a women's rights and non-governmental organization based in New Delhi. Geetanjali has worked at an activist, grant-making and policy levels on issues of sexuality, reproductive health, gender, human rights and gender-based violence. Presently, she is on the Amnesty International Gender Task Force, Spotlight Civil Society reference group and a board member of Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.
Winifred Byanyima, is a Ugandan aeronautical engineer, politician, human rights activist, feminist and diplomat. She is the executive director of UNAIDS, effective November 2019.
Gayle Elizabeth Smith is the former CEO of the One Campaign. Smith was formerly Coordinator for Global COVID Response and Health Security at the U.S. Department of State. and was the former Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Elizabeth L. Littlefield is an American businesswoman and executive. She is the Senior Partner and co-founder of West Africa Blue, and Senior Advisor at Pollination, a climate change investment and advisory firm. She chairs the Board of M-KOPA solar and serves on the board of the World Wildlife Fund (US).
Lois Elaine Quam is an American executive who has worked in the public and the private sectors to expand access to health care. She was named three times to FORTUNE's list of the most influential women leaders in business. She has also served as a top leader at a major nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the environment.
Senait Fisseha is an Ethiopian-American physician, lawyer and obstetrician-gynecologist. She specialized in endocrinology at the University of Michigan and received her Juris Doctor from Southern Illinois University. She is currently Vice-President of International Programs at the Susan Thompson Buffet Foundation. She became an advocate for global equity, working with African leaders and institutions during the Covid-19 pandemic. She also chaired the election campaign and transition of Tedros Adhanom, the first African Director General of the World Health Organization, in 2016-17.
The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians is a pan-African ecumenical organization supporting scholarly research of African women theologians. The Circle serves to mentor the next generation of African women theologians throughout their academic careers in order to counter the dearth of academic theological literature by African women. The Circle has chapters in more than a dozen countries across the African continent, as well as diaspora chapters in Europe and North America.
Esther Moraa Mombo is a Kenyan Anglican female theologian and a full professor of theology in the school of theology at St. Paul's University, Limuru. She researches on church history with a focus on mission history, interfaith relations and theology, gender studies with a focus on African women's theologies, sexuality and HIV/AIDS. She is the founder of the Tamar campaign in Kenya which acknowledges gender-based violence in society and empower churches to address it. She is the founder member of Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians St. Paul’s chapter in Kenya.
Nyambura J. Njoroge is a Kenyan feminist Theologian and ecumenical leader. She was the first Kenyan woman ordained in the Presbyterian Church of East Africa in 1982. She was the first African to work in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches from 1992 to 1998 when she joined the World Council of Churches. She is a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians and a member of the Kenyan chapter. She is a member of ANERELA+ . She co-edited Talitha Cum! Theologies of African Women, with Musa Dube. In 1992, she became the first African woman to earn a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. She was the first African woman to study a Bachelors Degree in Divinity at St.Pauls University, Limuru,Kenya.
Philomena Njeri Mwaura is a Kenyan Female theologian and an Associate Professor Religious Studies at Kenyatta University, Kenya. She has published widely in the areas of African Christianity- History and Theology and New Religious Movements.
Teresia Mbari Hinga was a Kenyan Christian feminist theologian and a professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University in California. She was a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.
Githinji Gitahi is a Kenyan medical doctor who serves as the Global Chief Executive Officer of Amref Health Africa as well a former co-chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee. In July 2021, he was appointed as a Commissioner in the Africa COVID-19 Commission.
Mary Getui is a Kenyan theologian and professor of religious studies at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. She is a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. In 2009, Getui was named a Moran of the Burning Spear. She was appointed as chair of the National Aids Control Council of Kenya that same year.
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