Board Members

Mrs. Bunmi Dipo-Salami is the Principal Consultant & Chief Executive of LaRen Consulting, Nigeria. A gender justice advocate, Strategy & Public Policy development consultant, she has extensive career and study experiences spanning over two decades in academics, gender justice, women's human rights & empowerment, public administration & governance, transformative leadership and project research & evaluation.

Prior to her present position, Bunmi served between 2010 and 2014 as Special Adviser on Planning, MDGs & Development Relations to Ekiti State Governor. She was also the Honourable Commissioner for Integration & Inter-governmental Affairs. She has worked on those issues she's passionate about in all the states across Nigeria, as well as in some countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Similarly, she has international experience in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and North America.

A World Bank Scholar and Chevening Fellow, Mrs. Dipo-Salami has an MA in Development Studies, specialising on Women, Gender, Development from the International Institute of Social Studies The Hague as well as a B. A. ED in French from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. She has received awards for her contribution to development in different parts of the world. Bunmi serves on the boards of many organizations that share her vision where she continues to contribute value in leadership and good governance.

Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin is the Director of the Accra-based West Africa Regional Office of ABANTU for Development, a women’s rights organization that works to promote gender responsiveness in policies in Africa. She obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Ghana. She holds a second Masters degree from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, and a PhD in Gender and Energy studies from University of Birmingham, UK.

In addition to her work as Director of ABANTU, Dr. Mensah-Kutin assists with the Network of Women’s Rights in Ghana as a founding member and past Convenor. She also serves on the advisory board of the International Gender and Energy Network (ENERGIA) which is based in The Netherlands. She is also a member of the advisory board for the African Women Development Fund. During the 1980’s she very quickly rose to the position of Assistant Editor of the Daily Graphic before moving on to become the Coordinator of the Social Impact Assessment Unit of the Energy Commission until 1998.

Gretchen Bauer is professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware where she teaches African and comparative politics. Her current research focuses on women's political leadership in sub-Saharan Africa. She is the co-editor with Josephine Dawuni of Gender and the Judiciary in Africa: From Obscurity to Parity? (Routledge, 2015); with Manon Tremblay of Women in Executive Power: A Global Overview (Routledge, 2011); and with Hannah Britton of Women in African Parliaments (Lynne Rienner, 2006).

She has been a Visiting Researcher at the Institute for Public Policy Research in Windhoek, Namibia and the University of Botswana in Gaborone, Botswana, and in 2016 she will be a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Ghana Legon in Accra, Ghana. During 2014 and 2015 she served as academic director for the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Mandela Washington Fellowship at the University of Delaware and in 2010 was co-director of the APSA Africa Workshop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Dr Amy Kebe is currently teaching Caribbean Literatures in the English Department of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (UCAD), Senegal. Prior to joining UCAD, she taught two years at Sainte Anne University, in Nova Scotia, Canada, before coming to Senegal in 2010 to work as a Gender Advisor for the Canadian Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI), where she was in charge of training and capacity building programs for women-led organizations.

She also works as a consultant for the Senegal River Basin Organization (OMVS) Haut Commissariat, where her work involves the mainstreaming of gender issues into water resources management. Amy holds a PhD in English Literatures (Université de Montreal) with a focus on Gender and Migrations.

Her doctoral dissertation, “Geographies of Displacements: Theorizing Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices in Black Caribbean Canadian Women’s Texts,” contextualize geography and cultural displacements, and their impact on migration, in the light of such factors as race, class, sexuality, and gender, in the works of three black Caribbean women writers in Canada: Dionne Brand, Makeda Silvera and Marlene Nourbese Philip, as writers multiply displaced by the boundaries of race, sex, gender, and place.

Amy also works as a consultant on gender and migration and is currently conducting a study for UN Women on Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Africa. She has published in the areas of Feminims and Diasporas, Labor and Migrations. Some of her publications include: Amy Kebe, BA, MA, PhD, Stephanie Bouris, BSc, Anita Gagnon, RN, MPH, PhD,, Lisa Merry, RN, MSc, Dual Country Motherhood: Mothering Here and Mothering There: International Migration and Postbirth Mental Health," Obstetrics and Gynecology International, vol. 2012, Article ID 593413, 6 pages, 2012. doi:10.1155/2012/593413

Ms. Zuki Mihyo is married and has three children. Her areas of expertise include gender, employment and decent work, as well as HIV/AIDS. She is a seasoned researcher, trainer and facilitator having worked in many countries with multi-ethnic and multi-cultural backgrounds. She has experience working with government and non-government institutions international, regional, national and local grassroots level. She has worked with a variety of stakeholders including bilateral, multilateral and UN agencies, within and outside Africa.

Her recent employer (Feb.2008-Jan.2012) was REPOA (Research on Poverty Alleviation), in Tanzania where she was the Director of Programmes, Monitoring and Learning and also Coordinator of the Gender Mainstreaming Working Group for Macro-Policies. Long before that, she also was a Lecturer at the University of Dar-Es-Salaam.

Her working experience outside Tanzania, include working as a Gender and HIV/AIDS Advisor in Namibia (2006-Jan.2008) at the Office of the President National Planning Commission Secretariat (NPCS) under the EU-Rural Poverty Reduction Programme (RPRP). From 1995 to 2000, she worked at the Botswana Women NGOs Coalition as their Gender Policy Analyst in Gaborone before joining the SADC Secretariat as the Regional Gender Programme Specialist.

Outside Africa, she was employed by SNV-The Netherlands Development Organisation (2003-2006) to work in Laos as a Gender Advisor; and also coordinated the South-east Asia Gender Network that covered Nepal Bhutan, Vietnam and Laos. Between 2000 and 2002, Zuki worked at the International Information Centre and Archives for the Women’s Movement (IIAV), in Amsterdam, where she was coordinator of the Novib/Oxfam VAW Project (2000-2002). And prior to that, she was a Programme Associate at the Bernard van Leer Foundation, in The Hague (1993-1994); a Trainer at the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), in Amsterdam (1992-1998) and Kontakt der Kontinenten (KDK) in Amersfoort, The Netherlands.

Aili Mari Tripp is Professor of Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. Her research has focused on women and politics in Africa, women’s movements in Africa, transnational feminism, African politics, and on the informal economy in Africa.

She is also author of several award winning books, including African Women’s Movements: Transforming Political Landscapes (2009) with Isabel Casimiro, Joy Kwesiga, and Alice Mungwa, and Women and Politics in Uganda (2000). Her first book was Changing the Rules: The Politics of Liberalization and the Urban Informal Economy in Tanzania (1997).

She has a forthcoming book with Cambridge University Press on Women and Power in Post-Conflict Africa.Tripp co-edits a book series with Stanlie James on Women in Africa and the Diaspora for the University of Wisconsin Press. She is currently active on the steering committees of the Social Science Research Council’s Next Generation Social Science in Africa Program and the American Council of Learned Societies’ African Humanities Program. For more information: https://ailitripp.wordpress.com

Anna Madziga is a development consultant with special interest in women and girls issues. She has 17 years experience working on gender issues, women's rights, women economic empowerment, girls’ education and adolescent rights. She has participated in several UN and other international Conferences and meetings that deal with gender issues, women rights, girls’ rights and conflict resolutions.

Anna Barka Madziga is a Doctoral Student of Political Economics and Development Studies from the University of Abuja. She also holds a Masters Degree (2007) in the same field from the same University and a first degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Maiduguri (1995). Anna has conducted researches such as baseline studies, end of project evaluations and mapping exercises for various organizations within and outside Nigeria.

She has presented various papers on women and girls topical issues at different fora. She is widely travelled and lives her life working to improve the lives of women and girls in the communities. Anna is from Adamawa state married and is a mother of 2 boys.