Ndondwa Msaka
Ndondwa Msaka is the Inclusive Governance Expert at Democracy International for the Parliamentary Support Program in Malawi. Ms. Msaka is a Gender and Governance Specialist with over 7 years experience working on gender policy guidelines and responsive legislation, elections, inclusive politics, democratic governance, human rights, and women’s empowerment. In recent years, Ms. Msaka has been involved in promoting gender responsive policies and addressing non-inclusionary policy frameworks that negatively impact inclusive governance at the district and national level. Recently, Ms. Msaka served as the SNP Malawi Programme Manager at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, where she led a variety of initiatives aimed at securing greater inclusion of women and marginalized groups in formal and informal political participation through visibility initiatives, capacity-building, research, electoral reform exercises, and election observation activities. Prior to this, Ms. Msaka worked in the Women in Politics and Decision-Making Department at the Ministry of Gender (Malawi Government), where she disseminated gender-related laws, and reviewed key electoral reforms and quota proposals. As Malawi’s 50:50 Campaign Connectivity Manager, Ms. Msaka conducted the mapping and monitoring of projects supporting women’s leadership and political participation in Malawi’s 28 districts. Ndondwa has also worked at Citizens for Justice, Tembenu Masumbu and Co. (Legal Practitioners), and in the Human Rights and Gender Department at the UNAIDS Malawi Country Office. Ms. Msaka has served as a Speaker at the UK APPG conference on ‘Violence Against Women in Elections’ (London, UK), the Launch of the WFD Public Policy Paper on ‘Women and Health Committees’ (London, UK), the conference on ‘Ending Gender Inequality in Political Representation in Africa’(Accra, Ghana), the Launch of the Malawi Candidate Survey on the ‘Cost of Politics in Malawi’ (Lilongwe, Malawi) and the ‘OSISA Political Empowerment of Young Women’ Meeting (Blantyre, Malawi). A Malawi national, Ms. Msaka has lived in Ottawa (Canada), London (UK), Shanghai (China) and Berlin (Germany). Ms. Msaka holds a Bachelor of Law in International Politics, and a Master of Arts in Intercultural Conflict Management. In 2014, Ms Msaka was a Regional Finalist of the Hult Prize Award under ‘Improving Disease Care in Slums by 2019’. Ms. Msaka speaks English, Chichewa, Chinese Mandarin, and Basic French.