Gender and Communications Specialist, International Youth Alliance for Family Planning; and For Equality
Jessica Mandanda is a Gender and Communications specialist with over 4 years of experience in development communications, movement building, and advocacy. She is a published writer with a passion for feminist activism, economic justice, and championing sexual and reproductive health and rights, and has published works with OSISA, Akina Mama Wa Afrika, African Women’s Development Fund, and Raising Our Voices. Her key achievements as an activist include sitting on panels regionally and globally including the Reykjavik Dialogues in November 2020 on Restorative, Transformative, and Community Justice; hosting the Africa Gender Equality Conference in May 2021, and supporting the Nigerian Women in Tech hackathon as a Judge in August 2021.
She serves as the Country Coordinator for the Girl Talk series under Choose Yourself Africa and is the Central Region Representative for the YALI Alumni Malawi Association.
She also serves as the Country Coordinator for the International Youth Alliance for Family Planning through which she has successfully secured two grants to implement projects on raising awareness on the urgent need for implementation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education including the legalization of Safe Abortion in Malawi.
She is a GRO-GEST Fellow, holding a Post Graduate Diploma in International Gender Studies, as well as a Young African Leaders Initiative Alumni (YALI), African Feminist Macroeconomics Academy Alumni and is an Alumni of the African Women Writers Workshop.
She is the editor of The Response and For Equality’s Communications and Campaign Lead.