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Her Excellency
Priscila Misihairabwi-Mushonga
Member of Parliament Zimbabwe

Much of Priscila’s 25-year career has been dedicated to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in various spaces including as a Cabinet Minister (2009 to 2013) and legislator in Zimbabwe’s Parliament. She has been a Member of Parliament for the past 18 years. She is currently chairperson of the Women and Youth Affairs Portfolio Committee, is a member of the Justice and Legal Parliamentary Affairs Committee and the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee. She was the first female chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee from 2003-2008. She has a strong history of civic participation and has over the years remained an active feminist.

She has also been actively involved in the drafting and adoption of appropriate legislative and policy frameworks for the advancement of women in Zimbabwe and in the region. Priscila was the only female chief negotiator in talks which led to the formation of Zimbabwe’s inclusive government in 2009, set up after a period of protracted political and social unrest. She was actively involved in lobbying for a new constitution for Zimbabwe, first as a founder member of the National Constitutional Assembly then as Co-chair of the multiparty Constitutional Parliamentary Management Committee, which led the national debate on the crafting of a new constitution. She consulted actively with the women’s movement to ensure the rights of women were protected and were a priority in the new constitution. As a former Minister of Regional Integration and International Co-operation, she spearheaded the set-up of a trade facilitation project, the One Post Border Post system, between the Zimbabwean and Zambian borders.

Working with the World Bank, African Development Bank and UNDP she sponsored the first Aid Development Framework for the government of Zimbabwe. She is a member of the Women’s Reference Group (WRG), a founder member of Women in Politics Support Unit, was the Secretary General of the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, a position she held for five years; and in 1999 she became Executive Director of Women and AIDS Support Network, and received the Kofi Annan award.

All photos are courtesy of speakers or their affiliations unless otherwise indicated.