Areas of Expertise
Democracy, Political Participation, and Governance; Media; Negotiations
Biography
Rebecca Joshua Okwaci says, “During the war, when we were on the run and fighting to stop the bombing of our villages, our people often gave us eggs and chickens to eat. Now we are giving them back peace and stability.” Committed to building that peace, today she is deputy minister for general education and instruction in the new Republic of South Sudan. In 1986, during the second Sudanese civil war, Ms. Okwaci joined the newly formed Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, and became a journalist with Radio SPLA. She was known as the “voice of the revolution,” broadcasting inside and outside the country and producing the only program that focused on women’s mobilization. She co-established the Sudanese Women’s Association in Nairobi, working in the Diaspora for economic empowerment. Ms. Okwaci was also a founding member of Sudanese Women’s Voice for Peace, an organization that was instrumental in preparing activists in the run-up to the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Convinced that women could come together despite political differences, Ms. Okwaci co-led the Sudanese delegation to Beijing, facilitating dialogue between women from the south and north. Those efforts culminated in the Sudanese Women Empowerment for Peace, an organization honored with the American Peace Foundation’s prize. Continuing with her public outreach, Ms. Okwaci was an assistant editor with the BBC and an executive producer at Sudan Radio Service, which was broadcast in ten languages. She was inducted into the 2006 Women Peacemakers Program at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, and in 2008 she testified before the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Sudanese women’s role in achieving peace. She currently serves as secretary-general of Women Action for Development, and is also a member of the Coalition of Women Leaders of South Sudan and Sudan. Ms. Okwaci is a graduate of Alexandria University in Egypt and a master’s candidate in communication development at Daystar University in Kenya. (1/2012)
Read an Article about this Network MemberLessons of South Sudan Can Help Bring Peace in Darfur