Dinah Musindarwezo is a Rwandan feminist and pan-African women's rights activist. She is director of policy and communications at

Womankind Worldwide Womankind Worldwide is a UK-based, feminist global women's rights organisation that works in solidarity with women's movements around the world to bring about lasting change in women's lives. Founded in 1989, Womankind partners with women's movemen ...

, and the former Executive Director of the

African Women's Development and Communication Network FEMNET, also called the African Women's Development and Communication Network, is an organization established in 1988 to promote women's development in Africa. FEMNET helps non-government organizations share information and approaches on women's ...

(FEMNET).

Life

In 2010 Musindarwezo was working as a gender equality specialist for

Norwegian People's Aid Norwegian People's Aid ( no, Norsk Folkehjelp) was founded in 1939 to provide post-conflict reconstruction assistance and humanitarian relief during conflicts. NPA is now engaged in more than 33 countries in de-mining, humanitarian relief, promot ...

in Rwanda. In 2012 she became executive director of FEMNET,Meet Ms Memory Kachambwa, the new FEMNET's Executive Director
'' The Standard'', 26 June 2018. Accessed 10 May 2020. based in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. As FEMNET executive director, she expressed outrage in June 2017 at Tanzanian president

John Magufuli John Pombe Joseph Magufuli (29 October 1959 – 17 March 2021) was the fifth president of Tanzania, serving from 2015 until his death in 2021. He served as Minister of Works, Transport and Communications from 2000 to 2005 and 2010 to 2015 and wa ...

's call to exclude pregnant students from education: In February 2018 she convened a two-day meeting in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

for African women's rights activists to strategise ahead of the annual

United Nations Commission on the Status of Women The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW or UNCSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the main UN organs within the United Nations. CSW has been described as the UN organ promoting gend ...

. Musindarwezo resigned from FEMNET in 2018. She became director of policy and communications at

, a UK-based organisation supporting women's rights groups in Africa and Asia. There she has highlighted the gendered effect of the

debt of developing countries The debt of developing countries usually refers to the external debt incurred by governments of developing countries. There have been several historical episodes of governments of developing countries borrowing in quantities beyond their abilit ...

, and on the progressive exclusion of civil society organizations from

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped *Photographi ...

financing discussion in the aftermath of the

Addis Ababa Action Agenda The Addis Ababa Action Agenda was the outcome of the 2015 Third International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was adopted by heads of state and government on 15 July 2015. 174 United Nations member states ...

. In April 2020 she called on the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...

to negotiate debt repayment delays for member states, to allow African countries to concentrate on fighting the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

.Mildred Ngesa
Africa CDC and AU must offer dignified, inclusive focus on women & girls in COVID-19 response
''Citizen TV'', 25 April 2020. Accessed 10 May 2020.

Works

* (with Tim Jones
Debt and gender equality: How debt-servicing conditions harm women in Africa
''Bretton Woods Oberver'', Spring 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musindarwezo, Dinah Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Rwandan feminists