Human Rights of Women

Source: All Africa
Sisonke Msimang, executive director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, has been named a 2012 Yale World Fellow, announced Yale University President Richard C. Levin.

Msimang works across ten southern African countries to promote human rights, transparency, and accountability. She is responsible for defining and driving the strategic direction of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and oversees projects on education, gender and women's rights, HIV and AIDS, and democracy building. Msimang first established and managed the HIV/AIDS program at OSISA when she joined in 2005, and oversaw the development of a diverse portfolio of grants. She has also worked and consulted for various UN agencies, including UNAIDS, UNDP, and UNICEF, on issues related to addressing gender inequality and sexual and reproductive health and rights. A prominent voice for women's rights, she also serves on the Board of the Sonke Gender Justice Network and the Health-E News Service.

Msimang is among 16 World Fellows selected this year, from a pool of about 2,500 applicants. This year's cohort brings the total number of Yale World Fellows since the program's inception in 2002 to 224 Fellows, representing 79 countries.

The Yale World Fellows Program is the University's signature global leadership development initiative and a core element of Yale's ongoing commitment to internationalization. Each year, the University invites a group of exemplary mid-career professionals from a wide range of fields and countries for an intensive four-month period of academic enrichment and leadership training.

Previous Yale World Fellows from South Africa include:

• Marianne Camerer, International Director, Global Integrity (2005)
• Siobhan Cleary, Director of Strategy and Public Policy, Johannesburg Stock Exchange (2011)
• Vusi Gumede, Associate Professor, University of Johannesburg (2009)
• Nicky Newton-King, Chief Executive Officer, Johannesburg Stock Exchange (2006)
• Mteto Nyati, Managing Director, Microsoft South Africa (2004)
• Raenette Taljaard, former MP; former Director, The Helen Suzman Foundation (2003)
• Thembi Xulu, Clinical Director, Right to Care (2010)

This year's World Fellows include an executive with China Construction Bank; a British military officer who served in command and staff appointments in Afghanistan; an Algerian private equity entrepreneur; a former Argentine minister of economy; and a women's empowerment activist in India.

"We are thrilled once again to welcome an outstanding group of World Fellows to Yale," said Program Director Michael Cappello, M.D., professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine. "The 2012 Fellows were selected from a global pool representing thousands of innovative difference makers. We are proud to offer them this unique opportunity to develop their leadership skills while enriching the Yale community through active participation in campus life."

The mission of the Yale World Fellows Program is to cultivate and empower a community of globally engaged leaders committed to positive change through cross-disciplinary dialogue and action. It has at its core three main goals: to provide advanced training to emerging leaders from diverse disciplines and countries, to link this network of world leaders to each other and to Yale, and to expand and deepen international understanding at Yale.

"We will be so fortunate to have these extraordinary men and women at Yale," said Yale President Richard C. Levin. "The University community is always so enriched by the World Fellows. We hope they take full advantage of all our community has to offer them."