Cynthia Liliane Kamikazi is the Chief - Partnerships and Outreach for Gender, Women and Civil Society Organizations at the African Development Bank. In this capacity, she leads the cooperation and resource mobilization efforts for the Bank’s gender agenda. Working with a high-level advisory Board of African CEOs, Ms. Kamikazi spearheaded the creation of an Africa-wide financing program for women’s economic empowerment, the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa. Prior to her current post, she served as an interim manager for the Bank’s office of the Vice President and Special Envoy on Gender, providing strategic advice on the implementation of the Bank’s Gender Strategy and overseeing strategic and budget planning.

Before joining AfDB, Ms. Kamikazi managed the southern advocacy program for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization in Geneva, where she led strategic stakeholders’ engagement and partnerships. Between 2002 and 2010, she held various positions including serving as an Advisor on Human Rights and Development for the Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the UN in Geneva; a Human Rights Accountability Project Coordinator for the Lutheran World Federation and a Human Rights Advisor for the National Human Rights Commission of Rwanda. She holds a Master’s Degree in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights from the University of Essex in Colchester, UK and degrees in Psychology, Business Management & French Literature from Luther College, US.