Grants Selection Committee (GSC)

Bongiwe Ndondo is former Vice Chair of the Global Fund Civil Society Principal Recipients Network. She is currently supporting a UNESCO- led civil society initiative aimed at improving regional coordination around the East and Southern African targets on HIV and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). Her experience in HIV and SRHR programming ranges from biomedical interventions to social behaviour change communication. Ndondo has experience working with various stakeholders at national and regional level, including governments, Regional Economic Commissions (RECs), African Union (AU) and some United Nations (UN) agencies. Her experience includes training Government Officials, Parliamentarians, Councillors in programme monitoring and evaluation. An accomplished, well rounded Development Practitioner and Strategic Manager with a track record in health equity, social justice and evaluation science, Ndondo is a decisive and committed team player who strives to find solutions to complex challenges.

Bafana Khumalo is Director of Strategic Partnerships at Sonke Gender Justice and is a Co-founder of the organisation. He served as Co-Director of the organisation from 2006-2010 and as Manager of Sonke’s International Programmes Unit and the Policy, Advocacy and Research Unit from 2010-2011. Khumalo has a long and accomplished track record in the NGO sector. He was Senior Gender Technical Advisor for Engender Health South Africa. In that capacity, he worked with the South African National AIDS Council, the National Department of Health, provincial and district AIDS Councils, and the Department of Basic Education to integrate gender into all HIV-related public health strategies and activities, incorporate comprehensive HIV prevention strategies and information into all education-related policies and programmes for schools and communities, and support the South African government and community organisations in quality assessment and improvement of HIV prevention services. Khumalo has served in various capacities on the Commission for Gender Equality where he was instrumental in assisting National and Provincial Departments of Government to plan and coordinate many activities related to men, gender and HIV and AIDS. These included carrying out a series of national dialogues with men on gender equality and gender based violence, working closely with traditional and religious leaders in each of the countries provinces, as well as working with civil society partners to develop the National Gender Machinery Working Group on Men and Gender Equality. Currently, Khumalo chairs the SANAC National Men’s sector which is one of the components of the South African National AIDS Council responsible for providing oversight on the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on HIV, STIs and TB.

Professor Cheryl Hendricks is the Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg. Prior to this she served as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Security Studies in the Conflict Management and Peacebuilding Programme where she focused on Women, Peace and Security and Security Sector Governance. She also worked at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Centre for Conflict Resolution and spent many years teaching in the Political Studies Department of the University of the Western Cape. She holds a PhD from the University of South Carolina in Government and International Relations and an MA from the University of York in Southern African Studies. Her research areas include Peace and Security in Africa (conflict analysis, post-conflict reconstruction, peace building), Human Security, Gender and Security, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and South African Engagement in Post-Conflict Development.

Tamara Braam is a strategic Management Consultant who has worked with clients in South Africa, the Africa region, and globally, on strategy development and advocacy, organization building, research and policy development, with significant substantive focus on gender- based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, diversity and social policy more broadly. A significant part of her work has focused on building strategic synergies between different groups, harnessing individual, community and social potential creatively to the optimum, and facilitating dialogue and exploration. She believes passionately in finding ways to support individuals, organizations and groups to deeply explore their own inherent potential to come into their full selves, thereby enhancing their own contribution towards wider social change.

Colleen Lowe-Morna is the founder and CEO of Gender Links. She began her career as a journalist specialising in gender and development. Among positions she held were co-ordinator of the Africa office of Inter Press Service in Harare; correspondent for South Magazine and Africa Editor of the New Delhi- based Women’s Feature Service. She joined the Commonwealth Secretariat as a senior researcher on the Africa desk in 1991, and later served as Chief Programme Officer of the Commonwealth Observer Mission to South Africa. Following South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, Colleen became an Advisor on Gender and Institutional Development to the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Assistance Special Programme of Assistance to South Africa. She subsequently served as Founding CEO of the South African Commission on Gender Equality. She holds an MA in Communications from Columbia University, BA in International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of International Relations, Princeton University, and a certificate in executive management from the London Business School.

Bhekiwe Ncube is Director of Operations at Gender Links. He has more than 15 years of experience in operations including procurement, administration, corporate governance, accounting, financial management and organisational systems development. He has Professional Associate Membership to the South African Institute of Professional Accountants, Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, Southern Africa (ACIS) as well as Southern Africa Association of Accountants (MSAAA). From 2011 to 2015 Ncube worked for the Southern African Aids Trust as Regional Finance Manager, and for the International Red Cross before that. Ncube holds an MBA in Corporate Finance from the University of Zimbabwe.