Entrepreneur, activist, politician, and philanthropist, Dr. Joyce Hilda Banda is the SIA-Africa Person of the Month for June 2020.
Dr. Banda was the President of the Republic of Malawi from 2012-2014, the country’s first female president and Africa’s only second female president.
As a political organizer and education and women’s rights activists, her impact on Malawi extends beyond the country’s borders and has garnered international acclaim. She was included in BBC’s 100 Women, a 2014 multimedia series dedicated to examining the important role of women in the 21st century. She was twice named by Forbes as Africa’s Most Powerful Woman and once as one of the most powerful women in the world.
Before her active career in politics, Banda founded the Joyce Banda Foundation and the National Association of Business Women (NABW), Young Women Leaders Network, and the Hunger Project. Her foundation guides projects that range from empowering women to providing for orphans’ education.
Dr. Joyce Banda is a champion for the rights of women, children, the disabled, and other marginalized groups and a prominent civil rights campaigner in Africa and throughout the world. For these reasons, she is SIA-Africa’s Person of the Month for June 2020.
