In April Judith Tuluka Suminwa was appointed the first female Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a move marking a significant step towards gender equity. Before her appointment as Prime Minister, Madame Suminwa served as Senior Advisor to the Minister of Budget (2012-2015), Deputy Coordinator for Administrative and Operational Issues at the … Read more

Dr. Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin has been appointed Executive Director of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program. Lia brings a wealth of experience and demonstrated success in her leadership as the former Minister and State Minister of Health in Ethiopia, as well as in other leadership roles. She assumed her role as Minister a day after the … Read more

The recipient of the 2024 Tessa Jowell Fellowship for Doctoral Research is Ibrahima (Ibou) Dieye, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School studying Health Policy with a focus on Health Economics. The Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program established the Tessa Jowell Fellowship to support doctoral research at Harvard focusing on policy issues of priority to … Read more

***The deadline to submit an application has been extended to February 29, 2024*** The Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program established the Tessa Jowell Student Research Fellowship providing up to $15,000 in support of doctoral or post-doctoral level research. Research must focus on health, education, or other aspects of human development impacting prospects for sustainable economic growth … Read more

The Harvard Ministerial Forum took place in September against the backdrop of two more military coup d’état – bringing the number of countries in Africa under military rule to seven – as well as popular, often violent protests across multiple African countries. Addressing the Forum, former Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete said these events reflected deep-seated … Read more

The Hon. Manty Tarawalli, former Gender Minister in Sierra Leone, was celebrated during the recent Ministerial Forum at Harvard for her landmark achievement in legislating a minimum 30% female representation in government and all public and private institutions. Minister Tarawalli ascribed her success in navigating the fraught politics of the issue to her 2019 participation … Read more

Twenty-one government Ministers with human development responsibilities, like health education, agriculture, youth, and gender gathered at Harvard for the 20th Harvard Ministerial Forum in mid-September. Mostly from Africa, but also including Caribbean and Southeast Asian countries, this most recent cohort joins the 281 Ministers who have been part of the Ministerial Program since its launch … Read more

In keynote remarks to the September Harvard Ministerial Forum, former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam D. Boshe mapped what he considers mega trends shaping human development in Africa including population growth, rapid urbanization, accelerated adoption of technology, and climate change. He noted these megatrends have both positive and negative implications. Although these macro-developments are beyond the … Read more