A sampling of the ways NVF Senior Fellows soared in 2020 —
2013 class:
· Jacques Sebisaho was selected as a 2020 Emerson Collective Dial Fellow. The fellowship “equips remarkable social entrepreneurs with new communications tools to strengthen their voices and extend the impact of their work.”
· Kennedy Odede was awarded the Head of State’s Commendation by President Uhuru Kenyatta for his work in the urban slums during the COVID-19 pandemic.
· Regina Honu was selected for the list of 50 African Digital Champions of 2020 by the Africa Digital Festival. They honor people who are unlocking Africa’s Digital Future.
2014 class:
· Bisi Alimi was featured as a Queer Warrior on EXIT: Living It Out.
· Bisi started a role as the Executive Director of Safe Place Greece, a refugee organization that provides services for doubly marginalized refugees (the LGBTQ+ communities, BIPOC, single mothers) with the aim of creating a happy and healthy family atmosphere for those who are far away from anything familiar.
· Jacqueline Musiitwa joined the Chinese Law & Development project as a research associate. It is a 5-year, interdisciplinary and multi-sited research project funded by the European Research Council.
Jacqueline is on the General Counsel Forum conference advisory board.
· Lindiwe Sibanda was appointed to the jury of the Food Planet Prize, the world’s largest prize in the food arena. The news was featured on Bulawayo 24 News.
· Lindiwe was appointed to the inaugural Advisory Board of Infinite Foods, Africa’s premier go-to-market platform for plant-based food brands,
· Lindiwe began a role as a Visiting Professor of food security at the ARUA Centre of Excellence at the University of Pretoria.
· Sisonke Msimang curated the 2020 Perth Festival Literature and Ideas Weekend.
· Sisonke was one of 30 South African writers who contributed to the new e-book Lockdown Extended — “a reflection on one of the most surreal times in South African history.”
· Sisonke wrote a chapter called “The Solace of Sundays” for the new book The Gifts of Reading: Essays on the Joys of Reading, Giving and Receiving Books.
· Sisonke is the host of the new podcast called Temporary produced by Guardian Australia in partnership with the University of NSW. It’s a new narrative series that tells the stories of refugees stuck in legal limbo in Australia. It was covered on Guardian, “New Guardian Australia podcast series gives voice to refugees stuck in limbo.” You can listen to the whole series here. It was also covered on UNSW Sydney, “’Temporary’ podcast: giving voice to refugees under temporary protection.”
· UT Effiong was appointed to the Pfizer Advisory Board as an Immunization Champion for Older Adolescents.
2015 class:
· Abraham Leno’s organization Eastern Congo Initiative’s model Asili was named as a finalize for the 2020 P3 Impact Award which recognizes exemplary public-private partnerships that provide solutions to pressing issues in areas such as economic growth and development, sustainability and global health. Abraham was quoted in the announcement.
· ElsaMarie D’Silva was a finalist in the social impact category in the Booking Tech Playmaker Awards 2020.
· Elsa and her team won the Booking.com Technology Playmaker Awards 2020 in the Social Impact Category out of 800 nominations.
· Elsa and her team won an award from the UN Summer Academy for a film they made, and it will be presented on 21 September at the UN.
· A book Elsa edited is out with Anthem Press, The Demographic Dividend and the Power of Youth: Voices from the Global Diplomacy Lab.
· Elsa is featured in the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders’ book Change Focus to Change: 50 Years of Inspiring Responsible Leadership.
· Elsa and Sathya Raghu were both included in YourStory’s “100 Digital Influencers.”
· Emma Naluyima was among the continent’s top three winners for the Africa’s Business Hero’s People Choice Awards. She’ll receive mentorship and business guidance as well as a share of the sh 3.7 bn prize.
· Esther Ngumbi was asked to serve on the International Scientific Committee for World Sustainability Forum 2020 Conference in Geneva in September. She was invited following receiving their Emerging Sustainability Leader Award in 2017.
· Esther was invited by the Conversation to be a guest editor for a special issue on Agriculture and Food Security.
· Esther was featured in The Frost Entomological Museum’s Black Entomologists exhibit at Penn State in February.
· Esther was selected to join the Editorial Board of Plant Metabolism and Chemodiversity as a review editor for Frontiers in Chemistry and Frontiers in Plant Science.
· Esther was invited toserve on the expert review panel for an initiative launching soon: Bold Solutions for Bold Challenges. From a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation affiliate.
· Esther was invited by the President of the Royal Entomological Society to submit an application to be considered as a fellow. She had a call with the UN FAO team working on addressing efforts to curb, control and anticipate future desert locust outbreaks.
· Esther was invited to serve as a Global Scientific Adviser to the International Foundation for Science.
· Bill Gates featured Kopano Mabaso in his “Gates Notes!” as one of his “heroes in the field” — “This doctor/novelist is tackling malnutrition.” It was covered by News24, “Bill Gates honours efforts of SA doctor Kopano Matlwa Mabaso.
· Rubayat was selected as one of 23 Bangladeshi changemakers for the inaugural Acumen Fellowship Program with the Acumen Academy
· Serufusa Sekidde received a Global Music Award for his new socially conscious rap album “The Solutionary Manifesto.” He received the gold medal for “Best of Show”
· Shikoh Gitau was appointed to the Kenyan government’s ICT Advisory committee. Her role is to support the government in identifying and scaling up of innovative solutions for COVID19, but also post COVID, and support them in making data-driven decisions.
· Shikoh was appointed to the board of Integrated Payments Service Limited (IPSL), the company behind Pesalink.
2016 class:
· Carl Manlan was a finalist on the Front Line Hero of the Year Award for the African Silent Heroes effort.
· Carl is now the Board Chairperson at the Leo Africa Institute.
· ‘Dapo Oyewole was appointed Special Adviser on Development Planning & International Affairs to the Speaker of Nigeria’s parliament and currently leads the ‘Covid-19 Response Strategy Team.”
· ‘Dapo wrote an e-book, “Ten Lessons African Governments Should Learn from Tackling the Covid-19 Pandemic” with this accompanying infographic.
· Folake Kio-Olayinka was 1 of 15 people selected to advise WHO’s Director General on Immunization within the high-level group called The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE).
· Folake was selected for the first cohort of Stanford University’s women leadership fellowship called WomenLift Health.
· Folake started a new position as the USAID Global Immunization Team leader.
· Renzo was invited to be the advisor to the newly launched Alliance of Public Health Advocates.
· Renzo was appointed one of the Commissioners of a new Lancet Commission on the future of health in the post-COVID19 world. He also joined the Advisory Council of Global Health 5050.· Sam Agbo received the Gold Lifetime Achievement Award by his school St. Paul’s College, Wusasa, Zaria.
·Sam started work with FCDO (former DFID) as Senior Health Advisor and Team Leader.
2017 class:
· Bernard Olayo’s organization Hewatele was the inaugural recipient and winner of the Rotman Innovation of the Year Award.
· Bernard and his organization’s work to scale up oxygen supplies needed to keep the most critically ill COVID-19 patients alive was featured on Bill Gates’ GatesNotes blog.
· Kennedy, Dixon Chibanda, and Koketso Moeti were all semi-finalists for the Elevate Prize, launched last year with MIT. They were selected among nearly 1,300 leaders, innovators, activists and risk-takers from 120 countries. The prize will award $5 million to 10 social entrepreneurs tackling problems across healthcare, poverty and racism. Ultimately, Dixon and Koketso were inaugural Elevate Prize winners!!
· Jamila Headley is chief of staff for the Center for Popular Democracy.
· Jemimah Njuki was named as one of the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 champions.
· Jemimah was appointed Director for Africa for the International Food Policy Research Institute and began the role on November 2. She is leading the Gender and Women’s Empowerment stream of work for the 2021 Food Systems Summit convened by the UN Secretary General and acting as the Champion for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment for the Summit.
· Koketso Moeti was featured on We For Good’s list of 100 women creating a better Africa.
· Koketso helped launch an African Digital Rights Network.
· Koketso was elected Chairperson of the SOS Coalition, a coalition of South African organisations committed to and campaigning for public broadcasting in the public interest.
· Koketso was appointed to the World Economic Forum’s ‘Partnering with Civil Society in the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ initiative as an Expert Advisor
· Minda Dentler was named a 2020 Women for Tri Global Ambassador.
· Because of her work on the topic, Ngozi Erondu was one of six experts invited to brief the UK Parliament on the coronavirus. Ngozi did a slew of media interviews on COVID-19 and was featured as the “Gamechanger of the Day” on HStvZim when she talked about coronavirus and global health security.
· Ngozi started a new (remote) role at Georgetown University’s O’Neil Institute for National & Global Health Law as a Senior Scholar with the Global Health Policy & Politics Initiative.
· Several years ago, Phyllis Omido spearheaded a lawsuit over lead poisoning in her Kenyan village — their community just was awarded $1.3 billion Kenyan shillings and the court also ordered the government to fix the problem. This ruling was featured in many outlets, such as Face2Face Africa, The Standard, Human Rights Watch, CNN and the Guardian.
· Phyllis was named to the BBC’s 100 Women of 2020 List.
2018 class:
· Agnes Igoye was appointed to a national taskforce addressing COVID-19.
· Agnes was contacted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime regional office in Kenya for her advice on upcoming regional counter trafficking activities.
· Agnes accepted an appointment in September to the African Tourism Board: Research, Sustainable Tourism and Development committee.
· Agnes wrote a chapter in the newly released book COVID-19 and Migration: Understanding the Pandemic and Human Mobility, published by Transnational Press London.
· Agnes will be teaching a course for Harvard University graduate students in a Child Protection certificate program, “Human Trafficking: Harvard University FXB Center for Health and Human Rights 2020–21”
· Ifeanyi Nsofor was named to the NewAfrican’s list of “100 Most Influential Africans.”
· Ifeanyi was featured on PATH’s list of “inspirational academics and public health experts” to follow
· Junaid Nabi was selected as a 2020 Emerging Leaders Fellow at UNA-USA. He will be working on understanding the impact of climate change on global healthcare.
· Junaid joined the Innovating from Discovery to Delivery (iD2D) program, a new educational program by the One Brave Idea project. “One Brave Idea” is an innovative collaboration between the American Heart Association and Google’s Verily, based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. During this year long program, he will continue working on health policy research, while developing additional skills in health innovation strategies and methodologies.
· Max Gomera began a new role as UNDP Resident Representative to the Republic of Rwanda in October.
· Ndidi Nwuneli and her husband were the 2020 Class Day Distinguished Alumni Speakers for Harvard Business School and it was covered by a few news outlets including Harvard Magazine, The Cable.
· Ndidi was one of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship’s 23 awardees for social innovation in recognition of “innovative approaches and potential for global impact.”
· Ndidi was named one of the “60 Nigerians in 60 Years Making ‘Nigerian Lives Matter.’”
· Primah Kwagala received a Peace and Reconciliation Award from Germany and the award and ceremony held at the German Ambassador’s residence were covered by Uganda Radio Network, “Pictorial: 57th Franco-German Friendship Treaty Anniversary Commemoration.”
· Stellah Bosire was the Science & Technology winner for AdvanceMedia’s 2019 100 Most Influential Young Kenyan’s award.
· Stellah received the Queen of England’s Point of Light Award at a ceremony on 25 February hosted by the High Commissioner of Britain to Kenya.
· Stellah was awarded the Determination Award 2020 by OBONYO Foundation, “In recognition of your outstanding performance as a medical doctor.”
· Stellah was appointed to the board of the DC-based organization Funders Concerned about AIDS.
· Dr. T was appointed as the new Special Rapporteur on Right to Health by the U.N. Human Rights Council at the start of its 44th session.
· Dr T presented at the UN Human Rights Council 77th CEDAW Pre-Sessional Working Group, 2–6 March 2020 during National Human Rights Institution sessions. She led the Commission for Gender Equality delegation.
· Dr. T’s book was long-listed for the Humanities Awards hosted by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
· Dr. T was featured by W24 as one of “8 local pioneers who’ve opened doors for us” at the start of Women’s Month.
2019 class:
· Abhilasha Karkey was appointed as a diagnostics advisor for COVID 19 crisis management center (CCMC) that is the technical advisory board for the Ministry of Health in Nepal.
· Adaeze Oreh was appointed to a national taskforce addressing COVID-19.
· Adaeze was appointed Head of Planning, Research and Statistics for the National Blood Transfusion Service, “a Director-level position that has me overseeing policy and planning, strategic information management, information and communication, partnership coordination, capacity development and human resources for health management for the service across all States in the country.”
· Alice Ruhweza was appointed as a board member of the CGIAR Systems Organization. The CGIAR System Board will provide strategic direction for One CGIAR in the delivery of its mission of “Ending hunger by 2030 — through science to transform food, land and water systems in a climate crisis.”
· Alice was named as a Gender Champion by the International Gender Champions, a leadership network that brings together decision makers determined to break down gender barriers and make gender equality a working reality in their spheres of influence
· Brenda Moore produced a COVID-19 activity book for children, particularly children of color. It’s been featured on Front Page Africa, “Liberia: Kids Education Engagement Project Launches First COVID-19 Activity Book for Children,” and Daily Observer, “KEEP Launches Liberia’s first COVID-19 Book for Early Learners.”
· Brenda’s organization Kids Engagement Education Project (KEEP) won the Ministry of Education’s annual Literary Award. She received it during a ceremony on 14 September. The Ministry included specific praise of Brenda’s work, as the founder and director, “We are proud of you. We are proud of the work you do. We from the Education Ministry and sector and Government of Liberia appreciate the work you do. We appreciate you and your team for your work in Liberia.”
· Efforts by Brenda to protest rape in Liberia helped lead to President Weah issuing a proclamation declaring a national emergency on rape.
· Isabelle Kamariza’s organization Solid Africa received an honorable mention in @FastCompany’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards for their “Gemura — Food for all” project in #Rwanda.
· Isabelle was nominated for the Arrell Food Innovation Award by Dr Paul Farmer.
· Isabelle was nominated for the Waislitz Global Citizens’ Choice Award. This was covered by The New Times.