What does it look like when African women run the table, rewrite the rules, and reshape global systems?
It looks like this list.
The global development space is filled with talk about big goals, bold targets, shiny pledges. But rarely do we pause to ask: who’s really doing the work? These 19 African women are doing it and they’re redefining it; pushing boundaries most don’t even realize exist.
They are policy experts, writers, feminists, economists, reformers, and visionaries. They’ve built grantmaking models rooted in justice, launched billion-dollar gender programs, authored landmark research, advised governments, and still made time to tell the stories no one else would.
What unites them isn’t just professional excellence—it’s how they insist that development must make room for care, community, and context. They challenge power not by yelling the loudest, but by shifting entire frameworks. They understand that real impact might not always be immediate or measurable, but it is intentional, intergenerational, and deeply personal.
This list is a recognition of women who move with clarity, but aren’t afraid to disrupt.
If you want to know what the future of global development looks like when it actually includes women—African women—start here.
Caroline Kouassiaman — Caroline is the Executive Director of Initiative Sankofa d’Afrique de l’Ouest (ISDAO), a trailblazing LGBTQI activist-led organization working to build a just and equitable West Africa for women and queer individuals, by creating policy shifts and starting up radical conversations. A queer, bilingual African feminist of Ivorian and African-American heritage, she has redirected her passion for social justice to strategic action across West African countries like Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Uganda.
Caroline has spent over 15 years investing in the power of grassroots feminist and LGBTQI organizing. Her experience spans feminist grantmaking, entrepreneurship support, education access, and research management — but it’s her heart for transformative systems that sets her apart. One of her disruptive and impactful initiatives at ISDAO is the idea of participatory grantmaking, an activist-focused donor logic that includes community activists on major decision-making boards and projects. Caroline is building power from the margins and providing proof that development work doesn’t have to be rigid to be revolutionary.
Esther Dassanou — Esther is a leader in the development sector who shifts entire systems. As Director of Gender Programs at the Mastercard Foundation, she’s shaping the foundation’s mission to connect young women in Africa to dignified, fulfilling work. Before joining Mastercard Foundation, Esther helmed the African Development Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), where she helped chip away at a staggering $42 billion financing gap for women-owned businesses, contributing to the deployment of $1.2 billion in investments through 56 financial institutions across 29 countries.
Her earlier work at the International Finance Corporation saw her lead the Women’s Insurance Program, helping insurers across Africa and Asia reimagine coverage for women’s real-life risks. She also co-authored SheforShield, a landmark report that made a compelling business case for the insurance sector to take women seriously — not just as clients, but as leaders and entrepreneurs. Esther has authored key global policy-shaping reports, including those for the G20, and led alliances of banks and institutions to center women in financial systems. Through every role, report, and reform, she’s pushing a bold idea: Africa’s future is female — and it’s time finance caught up.
Fati N’zi-Hassane — She is the Africa Director at Oxfam, leading the organization’s mission to fight poverty, with a sharp eye for justice and a fierce commitment to a decolonial, feminist agenda across the continent. Fati has amassed years of experience in translating policy into people-centered action across areas like Nutrition, education, gender, employment. Before Oxfam, she was reinventing systems at the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), where she built and oversaw the Human Capital Development Division. In this capacity, Fati pioneered the Skills for Africa initiative and coordinated the organization’s COVID-19 health response.
Her roots trace back to Accenture France and Comutitres, where she led multi million-euro transformations in banking and transportation systems. Fati has used the knowledge gained in numbers, budgets and strategic frameworks from these organizations to guide 55 AU member states through institutional reform, furthering her mission of addressing Africa’s most pressing needs.
Hafsat Abiola-Costello — Hafsat leads with legacy and purpose. As President of the Women in Africa Initiative and Climate Lead at Vital Voices, she sits at the intersection of climate justice, women’s leadership, and global development. Her story is rooted in Nigeria’s struggle for democracy, a fight that cost her both parents but sharpened her resolve to create global impact. She founded KIND, a civil society organization dedicated to raising a new generation of women changemakers.
With degrees from Harvard and Tsinghua, Hafsat has spent decades building movements and policy bridges across the local and international stage. From 2011 to 2019, she served in Nigeria’s state cabinet, overseeing trade, investment, and MDGs with the kind of clarity that turns strategy into results. Hafsat is also the founder of Project Dandelion, a women-led global campaign incubated by Vital Voices to tackle climate injustice from the grassroots up. Besides these development efforts, Hafsat also lends her voice to the World Future Council, Women Political Leaders, and other forums that shape tomorrow’s policies today.
Hawa Seydou Diop — She is the Senior Communications Officer for West and Central Africa at IFC, the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, where she steers strategic communications that turn the big development goals into everyday impact. With over two decades of experience, Hawa has become a trusted leader in development communications. Before her current role, Hawa shaped the regional communications agenda at UN Women, bringing visibility to gender equality initiatives across the continent.
At IFC, she leads communications efforts that promote financial inclusion, gender equality, and sustainable economic growth. Her campaigns shift mindsets and mobilize action, from empowering women entrepreneurs to spotlighting inclusive investment strategies. Hawa navigates high-level stakeholder relations and coordinates crisis communications with ease and is renowned for bringing clarity, creativity, and calm to complex development conversations. Her work is grounded in purpose: helping global institutions connect more meaningfully with the communities they serve.
Iris Mwanza — Iris is a multipotentialite whose days are split between dismantling patriarchal systems and writing thrilling books with feminist grit. As Deputy Director of the Women in Leadership team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she steers strategy and investments that amplify women’s voices in health, law, and economics—particularly in regions where those voices have long been sidelined. Raised in Zambia, Iris grew up seeing firsthand how gender inequality stunts progress. That early reality sparked a lifelong pursuit of justice, in courtrooms, academia, and global development.
She has a Ph.D. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University with a doctoral research on women and children’s rights in Commonwealth Africa. Her global résumé includes work in HIV/AIDS, community health, and human rights and is anchored by a steadfast belief that progress must center the most marginalized. Iris also serves on the boards of Care International and World Wildlife Fund US, bringing a gender lens to both human and environmental development. Outside of corporate spaces, she also addresses marginalization as a writer, with her debut novel, The Lions’ Den, tackling themes like AIDS stigma and queer rights in Africa.
Jackie Chimhanzi — Jackie is the Regional Director, Southern Africa at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a development organization that advises governments and leaders on strategy, policy and delivery. Before this role she was the CEO of the African Leadership Institute, where she nurtured the continent’s future decision-makers through the Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship, in partnership with Oxford University.
Jackie’s track record of influence stretches from boardrooms to global think tanks. She sits on the ONE Campaign’s Global Board and Africa Policy Advisory Board, and serves on the boards of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe and ADvTECH, Africa’s leading private education provider. Her influence in the development sector has garnered her impressive accolades. Some of which include, the Forbes Africa 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa, 100 Most Reputable Africans list, and in 2019, on the 100 Most Influential African Women list.
Dr. Jemimah Njuki — Jemimah is the Chief of Economic Empowerment at UN Women, and has spent the last two decades showing global development what it means to put women at the center of economic systems—while making sure no one confuses care work with charity. Born in Kenya and grounded in the lived realities of rural women, she has built a powerful career across Africa and Asia, championing gender equality in agriculture, food systems, and economic policy. In her role at UN Women, Jemimah is leading the charge to build economies that work for women—not just because it’s fair, but because it’s smart.
Her blueprint is clear: redistribute unpaid care work, push for decent jobs, open doors to land and finance, and write macroeconomic policies that finally understand the lives of half the population. Before UN Women, she held leadership roles with IFPRI, IDRC, CARE USA, and ILRI, shaping agendas from food security to women’s economic inclusion. She has led research in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and beyond, always asking the tough question: “Whose voice is missing from this table?”. Her work with the UN Food Systems Summit gave rise to the Coalition to Make Food Systems Work for Women and Girls, and the Global Food 5050 tool—bringing accountability to institutions still learning what gender-responsiveness actually means.
Jessica Horn — Jessica is the Regional Director for East Africa at the Ford Foundation and as the first African woman in the role since 1963, she has spent over 20 years reimagining what freedom, power, and pleasure look like for African women. A feminist writer and practitioner with Ugandan and Malian roots, she walks the tightrope between poetry and philanthropy, facilitating structural change. At Ford Foundation, Jessica leads grantmaking that goes beyond surface-level impact, focusing on deep, systemic shifts in gender justice and democracy.
Before this, she reshaped the African Women’s Development Fund’s grantmaking approach with a bold forward-facing strategy, resourcing feminist movements and cultivating new models of participatory philanthropy. Jessica’s politics are unapologetically Pan-African feminist. She’s helped build the scaffolding for feminist futures—through the African Feminist Forum, the Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health, and initiatives exploring body politics and violence. Her work blends policy, research, and creative expression in ways that make bureaucrats sit up and pay attention.
Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi — She is the President and CEO of African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), one of Africa’s leading policy institutes, and a political economist with roots in Ghana and a career that has spanned 25 years across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, where she has been redrawing the lines of what global development leadership should look like. Before ACET, Mavis’ experience includes roles at the UK’s Department for International Development, where she designed private sector strategies in Ghana and Tanzania, and helped grow The Power of Nutrition’s investments across twelve countries.
She is renowned for building systems: national economic frameworks, cross-continental think tanks, or quality benchmarks for global NGOs. At Save the Children, she built their first technical quality department from scratch; at The Power of Nutrition, she expanded their global footprint at breakneck speed. With a leadership style that is grounded but forward-facing, Mavis is helping steer Africa toward a future that’s not just economically viable, but human-centered, equitable, and fiercely intelligent.
Mendi Njonjo — Mendi is the Director of KCB Bank Group, Nairobi, Kenya; the largest financial services organization in East Africa with an estimated asset base of approximately Ksh.1.02 trillion in H1 2021. Armed with a feminist leadership style and an unwavering commitment to inclusivity, Mendi has mastered the art of bringing together unlikely allies, private sector executives, civil society advocates, and policymakers to collaborate on change that sticks.
For over two decades, Mendi has been the architect behind movements that challenge entrenched systems, amplifying the efforts of environmental and human rights organizations across Africa and beyond. The extraordinary Kenyan woman bridges the economic, climate, and social justice gap, ensuring voices are not left unheard.
Moussoukoro Diop – Moussoukoro is the Digital Communications Officer at International Finance Corporation (IFC) – a sister organization of the World Bank. The prestigious Malian digital communicator has been harnessing the power of storytelling to champion private-sector-led development in emerging economies. Before stepping into her role at IFC, Diop carved a niche for herself as a key figure in digital advocacy across West Africa.
She operates at the intersection of technology and global development, a space where accessibility is the difference between progress and stagnation. With a sharp eye for engagement and a strategic mind, she crafts communication that doesn’t just inform, but inspires action. Through her work, she proves that change isn’t only about policies and investments, it’s about making sure the right stories are heard in the right places.
Nayé Anna Bathily — Bathily is the External Affairs Manager for Western and Central Africa for the World Bank Group. She is a Senegalese and United Kingdom national ensuring that communication isn’t just about speaking, it’s about connecting, empowering, and making sure development is felt, not just discussed.
At the helm of external affairs across 22 countries in Western and Central Africa, Europe, and Washington, DC, Bathily leads a team of specialists who shape strategic communications and stakeholder engagement. She works at the intersection of policy and perception, guiding leadership on key development challenges from human capital and climate change to digital transformation and economic empowerment.
Nadia Ahidjo — Nadia is the Senior Advisor for Philanthropic Partnerships at the Black Feminist Fund, connecting Black women donors to the grassroots feminist organizations that are driving real change. She is a Pan-African feminist with a sharp strategic mind and an unwavering commitment to justice, ensuring Black African feminist movements get the funding, partnerships, and advocacy they deserve.
Beyond boardrooms and strategy sessions, Nadia finds joy in storytelling. A writer at heart, she crafts short fiction and channels that creativity into mentorship for budding writers, offering a space where voices can grow strong and unfiltered. Just as she amplifies narratives in philanthropy, she nurtures them in literature—an intersection of activism and art that fuels her work.
Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli – Ndidi is the President/CEO of the ONE Campaign, a global advocacy organization that fights for a more just world by demanding the investments needed to create economic opportunities and healthier lives in Africa. With 27 years of experience in international development, she has crafted a career rooted in action, leadership, and impact, shaping economic opportunities and healthier futures for Africa.
She leads a global advocacy movement demanding investments that foster growth across the continent. Her mission doesn’t stop at policy or business, it extends into storytelling. As a TED speaker and author, she translates complex issues into compelling narratives, making global development personal, tangible, and urgent. Whether she’s elevating African food entrepreneurs through African Food Changemakers, steering vital advocacy, or mentoring future leaders, Ndidi Nwuneli moves with purpose.
Neimat Abubaker Abas – Neimat is a Sudanese powerhouse in international development, making waves as a Senior Programs Advisor at the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA). With a background in law and a master’s degree in Gender and Governance, She leverages her decade-long experience in the nonprofit sector to drive meaningful change.
Neimat has honed her expertise in promoting women’s rights and empowerment. Her impressive career trajectory includes stints at Oxfam America, Women for Women International, and the Group for Economic, Social, and Culture Rights Studies. Neimat is rewriting the narrative for women in Africa, pushing boundaries, and challenging the status quo.
Njideka Harry – Njideka is the Global Vice President and Leadership Group Member of Ashoka, the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs, and is at the forefront of empowering changemakers.
She has a multifaceted career spanning academia, venture philanthropy, and social entrepreneurship, bringing a unique blend of expertise to her work. She is also a professor of practice at George Mason University, sharing her knowledge with the next generation of leaders. Njideka’s strengths lie in building relationships, connecting influential individuals, and advancing missions that drive system impact.
Pearl Uzokwe – Pearl is the Programme Director of Africa Forward at Catalyst Now, a social entrepreneur-led movement committed to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Formerly Director of the Sahara Foundation and Director of Sustainability and Governance for Sahara Group, she has championed thought leadership across 18 countries spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. She is a force for change, driving transformative impact across the globe with over 20 years of global leadership experience.
As a director at Catalyst Now, Pearl has built on her previous experience as Director of Sustainability and Governance at Sahara Group, where she represented the company’s interests across 18 countries. Her commitment to creating positive change extends beyond her professional roles, with advisory positions at Malala Fund and Private Sector Advisory Board.
Tsitsi Masiyiwa – Tsitsi is the co-founder and chair of Highlife Foundation, a social impact foundation founded in 1996 and Delta Philanthropies, dedicating over 29 years to investing in human capital development on the continent. She is a pillar of philanthropy and social entrepreneurship in Africa and the wife of the famous London-based Zimbabwean billionaire businessman, Strive Masiyawa.
Tsitsi is also a respected thought leader and advisor to universities, national leaders, and social entrepreneurs, offering guidance on critical issues. Her commitment to creating positive change has earned her numerous accolades, including two honorary doctorates and several awards. Through her philanthropic work, She leaves an indelible mark on Africa, fostering a brighter future for generations to come.
