PM meets UNAIDS regional director
MBABANE – Prime Minister (PM) Cleopas Sipho Dlamini yesterday met the Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Eastern and Southern Africa, Anne Shongwe.
Shongwe is currently in the country on a mission to engage stakeholders, including government, and familiarise herself with Eswatini’s HIV response efforts and measures that may be needed for a continued effective national response.
Meeting
Also present at the meeting with the PM was United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator George Wachira, UNAIDS Country Director Rose Craigue, NERCHA Director Khanya Mabuza, Secretary to Cabinet Victor Nxumalo and Principal Secretary Bertram Stewart, among others.
Shongwe is the Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Eastern and Southern Africa.
She has 20 years of experience as a senior international development professional, including with the United Nations Development Programme, across Africa and in management consulting in the United States of America (USA).
Responsible
Her last post was as the Representative for UN Women’s South Africa multi-country office, which is responsible for women’s empowerment and gender equality in Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and
South Africa. Shongwe is also an award-winning social entrepreneur and founder of AFROES, a digital and gamification learning enterprise, and is a thought leader on the future of learning. Shongwe and AFROES have received multiple awards, including the prestigious Schwab Foundation/World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Award and a national award, the Order of the Grand Warrior, from the President of Kenya.
She is an author and contributor to several books, including;
The write to speak: Collection of stories by African women leaders, Kenya@50 and Turning a crisis into an opportunity: The HIV response in Lesotho.
Programme
She is also a Board member and grand juror of the World Summit Awards for the United Nations Information Society and a former Global Ambassador of the Vital Voices leadership programme.
She has a Masters Degree in International Development from the American University, a Certificate in Social Innovation from the University Of Cape Town Graduate School Of Business, a Certificate in the Art of Largescale Systems Change for Social entrepreneurship from Harvard University and a Management Certificate from Jones International University.
Discussed
Meanwhile, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Thuli Dladla, received a courtesy call from Ambassador of Slovenia to Eswatini Saso Podlesnik, where issues of mutual cooperation were discussed at length.
The discussions were around establishing diplomatic relations and strengthening cooperation in agriculture, investment and trade, information, communication and technology (ICT) and education.