Biography
Dr. Mary Okumu is currently the chief technical advisor on gender equitable local development with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), covering Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania. Dr. Okumu is a specialist in maternal and child health and reproductive health, with additional expertise in gender and development, human rights defense and advocacy, peace and security, and organizational development.
In 2000, Dr. Okumu was named a Peace Laureate by the USA Peace Foundation in recognition of her extensive work training Sudanese women from all sides of the conflict in mediation and conflict resolution. In addition, she helped facilitate the creation of the Sudanese Women’s Alliance for Peace, which united women from opposing sides of the conflict during the peace negotiation processes that culminated the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Dr. Okumu has also advocated for women’s inclusion in peace negotiations in Somalia, Rwanda, and DRC. As the president of the Great Lakes Regional Women’s Forum, Dr. Okumu helped ensure that women’s concerns and rights were included in the Great Lakes Regional Peace Accord and was instrumental in bringing gender issues into focus at the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region. Additionally, under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, Dr. Okumu has cooperated with governments in the Horn of Africa to promote the role of women in official peace processes. She was part of the team that designed and established the Africa Women Committee for Peace and Development under the auspices of the African Union.
As a strong advocate for women’s rights, Dr. Okumu has also served as the gender consultant in the Office of the UN Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region in Nairobi. Before joining UNCDF in August 2009, she worked with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) for three years as the program advisor for women’s protection in the Darfur region. Dr. Okumu has also held many senior management positions including serving as the women’s representative from Kenya on the National Taskforce on Peace and Security in the Great Lakes Region; the regional representative of Oxfam America in the Horn of Africa; and, the executive director, and now advisory board member, of EL Taller Africa, a human rights organization that brings together women from different cultures to strengthen civil society through education, training, and capacity building. (July 2010)
For more on this Network member, read the following:
Women Waging Peace Network Member Mary Okumu mentioned in "Spring Convocation Honours Five for Contributions to Society"
The Ring
May 2007