Elizabeth Nyamayaro

Elizabeth Nyamayaro (born August 15, 1975) is a political scientist and former senior advisor to Under-Secretary-General and executive director for UN Women. Nyamayaro is also the head of HeForShe, a movement founded by UN Women to empower all humans, especially men and boys, to have a voice and take action to achieve gender equality in their own lifetime.

Early life and education

Nyamayaro was born to a Zambian mother and is one of four children. She was raised by her grandmother in a village in Zimbabwe ridden with HIV and famine. Rather than attending school, she did household chores and looked for food wherever she could. After a drought in the eighties left her village famished, Nyamayaro encountered UNICEF for the first time. This was the first time famine hit in her community and she benefited from U.N. aid workers feeding her from time to time.

Nyamayaro also attended Harvard Business School.

Career

Currently, Nyamayaro is a senior advisor to Under Secretary-General and executive director for UN Women and the head HeForShe Movement. Nyamayaro's first partnership for UN Women was bringing on actress and activist Emma Watson to be the face of the HeForShe Movement.

Prior to her work for UN Women, Nyamayaro worked for Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. As part of the Senior Leadership within the Corporate Strategy Office at Merck, she worked to continue Merck's vision of broadening access to medicine in developing countries.

In the past 15 years, Nyamayaro has held positions at UNAIDS, the World Health Organization and the World Bank. There, she worked to support public health initiatives. In both the public and private sector, Nyamayaro has worked at the forefront of Africa's development for more than a decade.

In May 2015, Nyamayaro filmed a TED Talk for TEDWomen titled, "An invitation to men who want a better world for women." As of March 2016, her TED Talk has gotten 1,240,141 views.

Additionally, she founded Africa IQ, a nonprofit that aims to contribute to Africa's economic growth and development.

Nyamayaro is an advocate of Ubuntu philosophy.

Awards Nominated for New African Woman Award in Civil Society