Governing Council

Jacqueline Asiimwe
A Ugandan human rights lawyer and philanthropy advisor. She is the current Chairperson of the East African Philanthropy Network (EAPN) and Chief Executive Officer of CivSource Africa, a philanthropy advisory service company that she founded in 2017. She concurrently serves as the chairperson of the International Centre for Research on Women Uganda, an affiliate of the International Center for Research on Women ICRW, based in Washington DC, United States. She has worked with Federacion Internacional de Abogadas (FIDA) (International Federation of Women Lawyers). She has also served as the country manager for Uganda at Wellspring Advisors, an American philanthropic advisory firm.

Itai Rusike
A Public health activist with over 20 years; experience in organizing involvement of communities in health actions in Zimbabwe. He is Executive Director of Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) based in Zimbabwe.
He is the former Deputy-Chairperson of the Public Health Advisory Board in Zimbabwe and a Steering Committee Member of the Regional Network for Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa (EQUINET) coordinating the Social Empowerment Cluster. He is also the Chairperson for the People's; Health Movement Zimbabwe, and Coordinator of the African Civil Society Platform for Universal Health Coverage.

Dr. Maria Nassali
Lectures at the School of Law, Makerere University and a gender and human rights specialist. She is a former Executive Director of FIDA Uganda and an immediate Executive Director of Kituo Cha Katiba, the East African Centre for Constitutional Development. She has published and been active in the area of health, human rights and sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls.

Prof. Peter Waiswa
An Associate Professor at Makerere University School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences and a visiting Researcher at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden since 2013. He is the founder and coordinator of the INDEPTH Network Maternal and Newborn Research Group in Accra, Ghana and the Makerere University Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Centre of Excellence in Uganda. He has widely published in health systems and policy, implementation research, and evaluation with a special focus on maternal, newborn and child health. Regularly engages in policy debates, advocacy and planning at local, national, Africa and at the global level for WHO, UNICEF, and other multilaterals.

Anne Gathumbi
A human rights lawyer with over twenty years’ progressive experience as a social justice advocate and international development practitioner in governance, rule of law and access to justice, public health and HIV/AIDS, social economic justice, sexual reproductive health rights and sexual and gender minority rights. She is the former director of Sexual Health and Rights Program (SHARP) of the Public Health Program at Open Society Foundations. Has also worked as the Deputy Regional Representative of Trocaire’s East Africa regional office for East and Horn of Africa and a founder member and Director of the Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW). She is currently an independent consultant and offers her skills to the philanthropic sector at international, regional and country levels.