On 1 January, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Amanda Khozi Mukwashi of Zambia as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Lesotho, with the host Government’s approval.

Ms. Mukwashi has devoted more than 25 years to public service, working on poverty alleviation, tackling injustice and inequalities at the intergovernmental and non-governmental level while holding leadership positions at the United Nations and externally.  Within the Organization, she served with the United Nations Volunteers programme in Germany as Chief of Volunteer Knowledge and Innovation, as well as Chief of Advisory Services.  She has also worked on country support programmes on gender, population and development with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Zambia.

Outside the United Nations, she most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Christian Aid, an international development and humanitarian non-governmental organization working in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East.  Prior to that, she held senior positions within global non-profit Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO International), as well as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa in Zambia.

A published author and an award-winning Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Mukwashi is also a trustee of United Kingdom-based think tank Demos and is a Thursdays in Black ambassador raising awareness of gender-based violence for the World Council of Churches.  She has also served in non-executive capacities as a trustee for the British International Development Network (BOND), as a president of Akina Mama wa Afrika, a pan-African feminist organization, and as a trustee of the United Kingdom Disaster Emergency Committee.

She holds a master’s degree in international economic law from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Zambia.