The Board of Directors at the African Women’s Development Fund is pleased to announce Françoise Moudouthe as the newly appointed, incoming CEO of AWDF.
In 2018 the current CEO of AWDF, Theo Sowa encouraged the Board to initiate a thoughtful executive leadership transition at the organisation. The transition plan that followed led to an international search by an independent Executive Search company, culminating recently in the appointment of Françoise Moudouthe.
A pan-African feminist with roots in Cameroon, Françoise Moudouthe is passionate about advocating for women’s rights and fostering sisterhood within African feminist movements. She is the founder of Eyala, a bilingual platform that amplifies the voices and lived experiences of African feminists. Having played an instrumental role in incubating Girls Not Brides, the global civil society partnership to end child marriage, and in spearheading its growth in Africa, Françoise has most recently worked as an international consultant, focusing on strategy, advocacy and movement-building for gender justice in Africa. She is a Board member of the Malala Fund and Womankind Worldwide.
“I am honoured to join AWDF, an organisation with an extraordinary legacy of redefining feminist movement-building and philanthropy in Africa and globally. I look forward to working with the AWDF team, grantee partners, and the wider African feminist movement, to nurture and support dynamic feminist activism in Africa in the years to come,” says Françoise.
Ndeye Sow, AWDF Board Chair added that “while it is always sad to say goodbye to the type of visionary leadership shown by Theo as she grew and consolidated the work of our organisation, the Board of AWDF are delighted with the choice of Françoise to take over the leadership of AWDF. We know that her vision and passion will take AWDF even further on the amazing leadership journey started by Bisi Adeleye Fayemi, carried on through Theo Sowa and now in the hands of Françoise Moudouthe. We look forward to her leadership journey at AWDF.”
Françoise will join AWDF in the second week of November 2020. After a transitional period where she and Theo will work together as incoming and outgoing CEO, Theo will step out of AWDF in mid-December.