Team

Olmo von Meijenfeldt

Executive Director

Olmo is Executive Director and co-Founder of Democracy Works Foundation. He has worked as a political networker, analyst, social entrepreneur, development practitioner and innovative manager on issues of human rights and democratisation in both Africa and Europe. He has spearheaded various leadership, democracy building and conflict resolution initiatives, in addition to managing funds dedicated to strengthening the role of civil society, political society and media through cross-sector approaches to deepening democracy.

His key interests lie in civil society sustainability and funding mechanisms for governance, human rights and democracy work in Africa and the global South, conflict management, institutions, leadership development, technology for development and climate and environmental issues.

Olmo leads the DWF Team on a day-to-day basis. Besides DWF's regional board, Olmo also sits on the DWF Malawi board.

To read publications by Olmo von Meijenfeldt on our website please click here. To view his tags please click here.

Democracy building is and must be an ongoing process, whether in South Africa or the EU. It is never ‘finished’, as older democracies show. Investing in democracy takes time, vision and long-term commitment. The returns don't necessarily show overnight, perhaps not even in our lifetime. It is a political development process that should involve all sectors of society.

Sandra Mutyambizi

Head of Operations

Sandra has over 15 years of experience working in finance.  She was previously Finance Manager for Southern Africa Trust working with the business development team and led a philanthropy project to raise funds for local community organisations. She holds a Post Graduate Certificate in International Accounting and Finance from the University of Liverpool as well as a BA (Hons) from the University of the West of England, Bristol.

Liz Letebele

HR & Administration Manager

Liz has worked at ActionAid South Africa (AASA), at Australia Awards for Africa (AAA) program, with nine years at the Department for International Development (DFID-SA). She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA), a Pan-African and feminist-led initiative that aims to contribute to the development of jurisprudence on sexual rights and women’s human rights on the continent by providing expertise on strategic litigation.

Boitumelo Setlhaku

Finance Officer

Boitumelo has Over 15 years of experience in the finance space having worked as a bookkeeper to Senior Accountant
She has extensive experience in the media, advertising, and branding sector, having worked for Multichoice, Kaya FM as well as Media 24.
Her career started in Advertising and branding where she was working as a Bookkeeper. She then went into the commercial media space which started at Multichoice and then I progressed to KayaFM where she worked as an Accountant for nine years before moving to Media 24 as a Senior Accountant. Highlights of her career include, serving on the Employment Equity Committee while at Kaya FM.
She has a CIS Professional Qualification – Corporate Governance and Administration from WITS University (Fasset).
She also completed the Management Development Program (PMD) at The Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
Boitumelo has a passion for women empowerment and Early Childhood Education as she believes that a solid foundation can give a child so much leverage.

Busisiwe Masha

Finance Assistant

Busisiwe is a seasoned professional with 6 years of working experience in the banking industry and customer liaising roles. She has long-standing experience working as a finance consultant in the bank and began her career as an officer front line and progressed to customer consultant. She also has bookkeeping as well as finance assistant experience.

She holds a National Diploma in Auditing and a Certificate in Accounting from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Her interests include early childhood development as well as creating safe spaces for young women and other underserved minorities in educational institutes.

Lerato Maloka

Communications Co-ordinator

Lerato Maloka is a certified digital marketer, with over 10 years of experience in multi-disciplinary communications.
She has agency experience, overseeing strategic & creative development, and public relations for B2B, Corporate Social Investment (CSI), and FMCG organisations. She describes herself as a digital media early adopter, having worked on digital media campaigns since 2014.

Dr Augustine Magolowondo

Regional Director

Augustine has over twenty years experience in international development cooperation particularly in the fields of governance, democracy, human rights, with most of these years spent in the field of political parties’ strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa. Previously he worked with the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) as the Africa Regional Representative. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science focusing on democratisation aid and development cooperation and an MA in Development Management from the Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany.

Fannie Nthakomwa

Deputy Regional Director

Fannie is a multi-disciplinary expert with more than 17 years of experience in the development and governance sectors. As the Deputy Regional Director, she is responsible for overseeing the management and operation of all programmes implemented at the country level within the southern African region for improved programme performance and coherence with organizational and donor objectives.

She also serves as the Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) for the Southern Africa Political Parties and Dialogue (SAPP&D). Prior to this, she served as the Senior Technical Adviser (STA) and DWF Country Director for Zambia. Fannie has wide experience in governance promotion of policy dialogue, citizen participation, responsiveness, transparency and accountability as well as strengthening democratic governance and institutions. She is also well experienced in legislative and parliamentary work, programme management and strategic planning.

Before joining DWF, Fannie worked with a broad range of actors in management positions including serving as Programme Manager at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) Malawi, as Deputy Country Director and Programs Coordinator with the Swedish Organization for Individual Relief (SOIR) and as Project Manager for the jointly funded Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and DFID Economic Governance Project in Malawi.

She also has hands-on experience in grants management and setting up grants making systems having worked as Deputy Team Leader and Head of Operations for a £19 million multi-donor (DFID, Royal Norwegian Embassy and Irish Aid) pooled grant-making facility in Malawi (the Tilitonse Fund).


As a DWF Master trainer and facilitator, Fannie provides organizational capacity development support through training, mentorship and coaching. Her academic background, in which she holds an MSc in Agriculture Economics from University of Malawi, and her practical experience in governance provides the much-needed nexus between politics and development.

Tadala Chumachiyenda

Regional Program Officer

Tadala has previously worked under USAID Fisheries Integration of Society and Habitats Project with Pact Malawi and Emmanuel International. She has experience in project implementation and Monitoring and Evaluation. Working with local communities in governance, livelihoods and climate change adaptation interventions she was responsible for managing M&E systems, capacity building of local governance structures and reporting. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science from the University of Malawi and has undergone training in gender mainstreaming for project planning and implementation.

Nompumelelo Runji

Project Manager

Nompumelelo is a seasoned political analyst, thought leader, and author. She has worked as a researcher at think tanks including the Institute for Security Studies and The Forum for Public Dialogue and has worked as a part-time lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the University of Pretoria. She has experience in grant-making and project management, having worked as programme manager at the Frederich Ebert Stiftung South Africa and worked at the Sowetan as convener of the Sowetan Dialogues as well as coordinator and editor of the letters and opinion pages. She is also an experienced communicator with a strong track record in event moderation, facilitation and training, and stakeholder management. She holds an MPhil in Multidisciplinary Human Rights, a BA (Honours) in Political Science, and a BSocSci in Industrial Sociology and Labour Studies all from the University of Pretoria.

To read publications by Nompumelelo on our website please click here.

Augusto Santana

Country Director

Augusto Santana is a former Angolan army captain, journalist, and teacher. Enthusiast, scholar, trainer, and activist on issues related to democracy and governance, especially in the areas of elections, political parties, human rights, and gender, he has worked in these areas for over 23 years. In the field of ​​elections, has engaged and observed electoral processes in more than 50 countries in Africa and abroad. During that period, he has worked with several electoral institutions including National Electoral Bodies in SADC and beyond.

He has published books on elections and political parties and cooperated with some specialised magazines and newspapers. Before joining DWF he worked with the Norwegian Peoples Aids, National Democratic Institute, Electoral Institute of Southern African, and the United Nation Development Program. During the Angola 2017 elections was the main advisor to the National Electoral Commission president.

Augusto holds a BA in Public Policy, from the University of South Africa (UNISA) and a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Liverpool as well as postgraduate degrees in Human Rights from the Universities of Sao Paulo, and Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, both from Brazil and Columbia, USA.

Ntlogeleng Modise

Country Team Lead

Ntlogeleng is seasoned Social Scientist boasting of 29 years work experience, spanning in both the Botswana Civil society and public sector. She has extensive knowledge in Non – Governmental Organisation management, particularly in the areas of managing projects, financial management   as well as resource mobilisation for organisational and   project sustainability. Her stakeholder engagement and management skills are above par. Her experience on Governance matters are further harnessed by her involvement in various boards such as  Botswana Network of AIDS Service Organizations (BONASO), Botswana Football Association (BFA) Electoral Committee and  Scripture Union (S U) Botswana.

She holds a Bachelor of Social Work and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Botswana.

She is a certified Relationship Model Governance Consultant, who devotes much of her spare time to community work.

Mpho Noah

Finance and Administration Assistant

Mpho has over 10 years experience working In the Accounting Landscape, she also has a solid understanding of donor funded Projects.
Previously she has worked for Tebelopele and FHI 360 which are donor driven organizations.

She holds a Diploma in Accounting (AAT) and Advanced Tax (AAT) from the Botswana Accountancy College.

Masego Joseph

Office Assistant

Masego holds a BSc (Hons) in Computing from Botho University. To further her expertise in the IT industry, she held a temporary teaching position at Goldmine C. J. S.S as an IT Officer and Computer Awareness teacher.

Her roles were to configure, troubleshoot and maintain computers, school network and printers.

She previously worked as an Intern- System Support in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (Office of the Accountant General) and Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport & Culture Development for rolling out SWIMS (Supply Warehouse & Inventory Management System), setting up organizational access for various responsibilities for governmental organizations.

Gideon Dlamini

Country Team Lead

Gideon has over 30 years of experience in Management consulting, training and practice as well as five years in politics, strategic planning, workshop facilitation, executive training in leadership, positive thinking, business management, team building.

He is also into property development and has over 13 years in the public service, 20 years in private sector and 5 years in politics.

His qualifications include a: MBA, Diploma In Management Consulting, Diploma in leadership and governance, Diploma in Business and Accounting a number of professional certificates. In his down time he enjoys sports such as taekwondo, gym, travel, church, community service, movies and time with family.

Percy Masuku

Programme Co-ordinator

Percy has over 12 years of experience in labour and social research.  Percy also conducted research for the trade union movement, including the National Minimum Wage, Collective Bargaining in the Civil Services and Assessing the impact of Illicit Financial Flows on Collective Bargaining. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences (BASS) at the University of eSwatini (UNESWA) in 2000- majoring in Industrial Sociology & Public Administration.

Percy has volunteer experience as a recruiter and later an Education Officer in the Swaziland Transport & Allied Workers Union (STAWU), now called the Swaziland Transport & Communications and Allied Workers Union (SWATCAWU).

Katiso Mosoeunyane

Monitoring and Evaluation

Katiso has over four years of experience working in civil society organizations, through research and electoral management. He has experience in various projects including Lesotho’s bulk water supply, electoral management cycles, youth and women initiatives, and capacity building programs for political parties, CSOs, and other stakeholders.
He has contributed to national studies in Lesotho aimed at poverty alleviation and participated in the China-Lesotho bi-lateral relations on trade, culture, and technology and written work published by the Chinese Embassy.
Recently, he provides technical assistance to the management of monitoring and evaluation of the European Union-funded project.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Public Administration from the National University of Lesotho.
He is currently studying towards a Postgraduate in Monitoring and Evaluation methods (Stellenbosch University). He is passionate about community and skills development as well the development of women, and youth, he describes himself as an advocate for good governance and the building of just and inclusive societies.

Letlotlo Koele

Communications Assistant

Letlotlo has eight years of experience working in the field of information communications technology, teaching, and for the Lesotho Communications Department, he also has experience in the private sector as a communicator.

He holds a Bsc Degree in Business Information Technology obtained from the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology Lesotho.

He is passionate about working hard within a team setting and outside the office enjoys a good game of volleyball.

Telang Ntsamai

Finance and Administrative Officer

Telang has 8 years of experience in the field of Finance, having started as an accountant in the Engineering firm, Security Company, Council of Churches.
His career dates back to serving as an Accountant in an Engineering Company managing the Administration team, he has worked at Christian Council of Lesotho in the Project funded by ‘The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and FRI (The Nowergian Organization)and was later a Finance Manager for the same Organisation
Holding A General Accounting from ACCA Equivalent to BCom Degree from Local University
His downtime is spent hiking and camping.

Nthabiseng Ketsi

Office Assistant

Nthabiseng Khetsi serves as the office assistant since 2017. She has worked in the NGO sector for 5years.

Her responsibilities include providing support to the office through administrative activities for the PYWIEG and SAPP&D projects in Lesotho.

She is also responsible for ensuring health and hygiene standards are maintained within the office.

She has her LGSCE certificate and she's now perusing her diploma in Hospitality Management at IBC College.

She enjoys Christian music, her interests are in health and beauty, hospitality, administration, motivational speaking , reading ,dancing and singing.

Tamika Nyirenda-Banda

Project Coordinator

Tamika is a project management specialist with over 15 years of experience in areas of administration, Parliamentary Strengthening and Project Management. She has also been a part of various consultancy teams in areas of Gender Equality, Women and Youth Empowerment, Livelihoods, Socio-economic Empowerment and Development.

Soon after graduating, she volunteered for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Atlanta, Georgia and contributed to their newsletter before joining Aetna Health as a Provider relations officer. She then relocated back to Malawi where she worked as the Project Officer for the Institute for Parliamentary Support in Africa (IPSA), and later its Project Manager.

She has a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree in International Relations from United States International University (now Alliant International University) in San Diego, California.

She has a passion in Women and Youth empowerment, Girl Education and writing.

She also just loves to make a difference and bring a smile to others.

Tryphena Milos

Office assistant

Tryphena has over 7 years of experience in the NGOs sector. She is highly organized, productive, skilled, and experienced in the administrative field with excellent interpersonal and communication skills. In 2014 she joined Goal Malawi, a humanitarian organization that was funded by Irish Aid as an office assistant.

She is trained as a Peer Educator, motivating peers to adapt and adopt positive behavior change, and has worked as a data entry Conducting field assessment and surveys.

In 2017 she Joined Nation Registration Bureau (NRB) which was funded by UNDP as a registration officer during the Malawi mass citizen registration by explaining the process and helping the applicants to fill the form, conduct interviews with the respondent.

She holds a Malawian Certificate of Education and a certificate of a peer educator.

Kusanda Kachulu

Gardner

Kusanda joined DWF In October 2019 and works as the office attendant. He had previously worked at the main regional referral hospital, Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in the same capacity before joining DWF.

When not at the office, Kusanda serves as a youth leader at his churhc,for Kusanda, Democracy must bring evidence of rights and freedoms for all.

Bonga Mlambo

Bonga Mlambo is a Graphic Designer with over five years of
experience helping organisations communicate their brand value
visually and effectively. He is also an avid photographer and
videographer, passionate about creating digital content. His hobbies include photography and gaming.

Mira Dutschke

Programme Manager

Mira has 15 years of research, advocacy, capacity building, media production, and programme management experience and has worked across Southern Africa, in Northern Ireland, and the United States. Her work is focused on good governance and community-driven accountability and has covered areas such as children’s rights, human rights-based budgeting, and government spending, extractive industries and environmental rights as well as fundraising and grant. Her work has been published in books, peer-reviewed journals, and popular media outlets. LinkTV, MNet, the UK Guardian, the Mail&Guardian, and others have published her media work. She has an LL.B (bachelor of law) and an LL.M - Masters in International Human Rights law. Mira is passionate about social justice, human rights, and sustainable development and continues to explore new and innovative approaches to bring about positive change.

Lesego More

Project Coordinator

Lesego has a background in governance, policy development, and research. He previously worked at the North West University in Student Life, where he focused on student leadership development and training. His academic highlights include being part of the Linnaeus Palme International Exchange Programme in Sweden. He holds a BA Law and BA Honours in Political Studies and is currently studying towards his MA with a research focus on Legislatures and Democracy in the continent at North West University.

Kunda Bulaya

Project Assistant

Kunda holds a BA degree in Public Administration with Political Science from the University of Zambia. She is currently attending USAID's Youth Lead Project and she is leading a capstone project team focused on curbing the cause and effects of substance abuse by youth of employment age in Zambia.

Abel Nyasambo

Gardner

Abel has over 20 years of experience working as a Landscaper for companies such as Velos Construction and Trade Kings.
Abel is very organised, able to multi task, self-motivated individual who works on his own initiative.
He has excellent interpersonal skills and that is coupled with exceptional landscaping skills. For Abel, democracy is important to ensure the will of the people prevails.