BUSINESS REPORTER
Oxfam America has appointed Zimbabwe-born Tawanda Mutasah as vice president of global partnerships and impact.
“[He] will be responsible for providing overall strategic and operational leadership of Oxfam America’s global partnerships and impact division, and identifying, nurturing, and maintaining a wide range of strategic partnerships within and outside the Oxfam International confederation on all matters related to programmatic impact and global partnerships,” Oxfam said.
Mutasah joins Oxfam America with over 25 years of experience in international non-profit management, fundraising, and programme innovation in a vast range of areas from humanitarian response to advocacy and long-term development.
He was the senior director of international law and policy at Amnesty International where, among other things, he led the organisation’s work on climate justice, gender justice, and disability rights.
While at Amnesty, he established and operationalised their Sustainable Development Goals engagement and partnerships, including with UN entities, expanded gender and identity programming and disability rights work, and led robust and inclusive programme policy development efforts.
Mutasah also has extensive knowledge and understanding of the complexities of institutional support having spent six years as the Global Director of Programmes at the Open Society Foundations, where he stewarded a US$400m budget. Before that, he held a variety of other positions with Open Society Foundations including chair of their Africa Advisory Board, and executive director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa.
He also established the Southern Africa Resource Watch, which researches and advocates on fair economies and protection of human rights in the extractive industries sector.
“Tawanda is no stranger to Oxfam. In addition to collaborating with Oxfam throughout his career, he worked for Oxfam Great Britain coordinating policy, communications, humanitarian and long-term development programmes as part of the management team in the Southern Africa region. He has also held roles with Impact Development Associates and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches in his country of birth, Zimbabwe,” Oxfam said.
Mutasah is a graduate of Harvard Law School, New York University Law School, the graduate school of public and development management at the University of the Witwatersrand, and the University of Zimbabwe. He taught at the Paris School of International Affairs on international humanitarian law and human rights laws.
