Patience Ndlovu, a highly-regarded senior and long-time staff member of World Education has stepped into the role of Executive Director/Vice President as of January 2023, taking over from Gill Garb, the founding director of the Bantwana Initiative.

Well-known to many in the World Ed/JSI family and beyond, Ms. Ndlovu has served in multiple technical and leadership capacities with Bantwana for nearly 15 years, leading programs in various countries and spearheading innovations, models, and a deliberate and genuine commitment to locally led development and solutions.

Most recently, Ms. Ndlovu completed a 2 ½-year term as Country Director for the Bantwana Initiative of World Education, Inc. in Malawi and the Chief of Party for the USAID/PEPFAR-supported Ana Patsogolo Activity (APA). As Chief of Party, she led a consortium of five local non-governmental and faith-based organizations who are working in close collaboration with clinical service providers, communities, and families to prevent new HIV infections and reduce vulnerabilities among OVC and AGYW. Ms. Ndlovu also spearheaded efforts to strengthen Malawi’s National Child Protection Case Management System and operationalize multi-sector coordination from national to village level.

Prior to this, she served as Country Director for World Education Inc./Bantwana in Zimbabwe and as the Chief of Party for the USAID/PEPFAR supported Vana Bantwana Program. In that capacity, she strengthened and coordinated the national OVC response through system strengthening and child protection programming. She also oversaw the implementation of the DREAMS and DREAMS Innovation Challenge programs reaching adolescent girls and young women with GBV and HIV services, part-time continuing education, and mentorship support. Ms. Ndlovu also led the development and scaling up of the National Case Management System under the UNICEF Child Protection Fund, building the capacity of the Department of Social Welfare and the capacity of community case workers to roll out the system and strengthening the MIS system to track it. The model was rolled out nationally to all 65 districts in Zimbabwe and has now become a global best practice being replicated in other African countries.

Ms. Ndlovu has also served as the Deputy Chief of Party for the USAID/PEPFAR-funded Children First program with WEI/Bantwana overseeing and leading program planning, implementation and monitoring. Before joining WEI/Bantwana, she worked for various local and international organizations in different capacities including Capernaum Trust Zimbabwe (now Higher Life Foundation), where she led and managed OVC programs, as well as Special Grants Coordinator for World Vision International. Ms. Ndlovu has a Master’s degree in Policy Studies from the Southern Africa Regional Institute for Policy Studies and Bachelor’s degree in Rural and Urban Planning from the University of Zimbabwe.