Her Excellency Joyce Banda served as the President of the Republic of Malawi from 2012-2014. She was Malawi's first female president and Africa's second. Prior to assuming office, President Banda served as a Member of Parliament, Minister of Gender and Child Welfare, Foreign Minister, and Vice President of the Republic of Malawi. While serving as Minister of Gender and Child Welfare, she championed the enactment of The Prevention of Domestic Violence Bill (2006), which provided the legal framework to support the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls. President Banda is a former Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development.
Caroline Lambert is an award-winning former journalist and former visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development. While a staff journalist for The Economist, Lambert won several awards for her coverage of Southern Africa's politics and business from Johannesburg. She also reported on conflict and post-conflict situations in Algeria, Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe. Before becoming a journalist, she worked for the World Bank. She is the coauthor of Oil to Cash: Fighting the Resource Curse through Cash Transfers (Center for Global Development, 2015).