Josina Z. Machel is a gender activist and a social entrepreneur. Currently she coordinates the Institutional Capacity Building Project (Parliaments and Political parties) of the Governance and AIDS program of IDASA (Institute for Democracy in South Africa). In 2002, Ms. Machel co-founded the first organization (Pfukani, Lda) specializing in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the Workplace in Mozambique. Pfukani Lda conceptualized, coordinated and managed regular awareness-training and workshops, peer-education programs, surveillance, evaluation and monitoring interventions, and developed communication tools for the companies. Previously, Ms. Machel worked for Anglo-American Operations, Ltd as Human Resources Officer, HIV/AIDS program, advising and providing technical support at a strategic corporate level on policy, training, monitoring and evaluation. Before joining Anglo Operations Ltd, Ms. Machel served as an assistant employment equity consultant with SANLAM where she helped design employment equity, HIV/AIDS and other policies and company strategies for a historically, racially divided South African company in its transformation to a non-racially divided business. Ms. Machel holds an MSc degree in Sociology (Gender) from the London School of Economics and Political Science UK, and a Bachelor of Social Science, Sociology and Political Science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She has presented at a number of national and international conferences on issues of youth, gender and HIV/AIDS. She has published work in the same areas as well as governance and AIDS. She serves on a number of International Boards.
An African leader breaks the silence on sex, culture, and human rights, and asserts that Africans together need to foster a generation of young people that is empowered with knowledge, and that values such as honesty, responsibility and service, in order to make safe and responsible choices about their sexuality.
