Governance Structure

Dr. Najwa Bourawi, is the Vice Chair of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance’s Continental Executive Board. She brings to the board a wealth of leadership.
Dr Najwa is currently the President of the Association for the Protection of the Environment and Sustainable Development of Bizerte (APEDDUB) and a member of the Executive Board of the Tunisian Association for the Protection of Nature and the Environment (ATPNE), She is the National Coordinator of the Arab Network for Environment and Development (RAED) She is also very passionate about children’s rights and is the Vice President of the Tunisian Association for the Rights of the Child, Bizerte Section (ATUDE of Bizerte).

Prof. Muawia Hamid Shaddad is a civil society activist and co-founder of PACJA . He was reelected Chairperson of Advisory Council. Prof. Shaddad from Sudan, is an accomplished astronomer and a faculty member of the Physics Department, Faculty of Science University of Khartoum established in 1901. His has vast experience in chairpersonship of continental and regional Civil society.

Tracy Sonny from Botswana was elected treasurer and Chair of Finance& and Administration. She is an Environment and Social Expert with more seven years of experience in the Energy, Gender, and Climate Change sectors. She is currently the National Coordinator of Botswana Climate Change Network. Her successful achievements in the past term pushed the members of Continental covering Council to entrust her with the second term as Treasurer and chair of Finance and administration committee.

Ahmed Sekou Dialo was elected Chairperson of Recruitment and credentials committee the position he was holding from 2018. He presides over the PACJA national platform in Mali (PNASC-CED) and is also a member of the Board of Directors of PACJA, GNDR, Réseau Réussir la Décentralisation. Diallo was once President of the “Forum des Organisations” de la Société civile du Mali but also held various positions in the largest sectors of civil society in Mali. He has been involved in advocacy and policy influence for several years and plays a leading role in Malian and African civil society. He has extensive experience of collaboration and partnership with governments, technical and financial partners, elected officials, women’s and youth groups, and vulnerable groups.

Grace Ampomaa Afrifa joined the board with the role of Chairperson Ethics and Arbitration. Grace from Ghana has over ten years, within the women’s rights space advocating for the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality in Ghana. Focused on mainstreaming gender into climate interventions, she represents her organization in the Gender Technical Working Group under the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) which works to promote gender responsiveness in Ghana’s NDCs.

Mithika Mwenda has extensive experience of working in climate change policy advocacy. Previously he worked as the Climate Change Officer with the All Africa Conference of Churches and Climate Network Africa. Before this, he worked and volunteered in numerous Governance and human rights and Democracy organizations in Kenya that opened democratic space and respect for human rights. His leadership skills were honed at Moi University where he was the Vice-Chairman for the Students Union.

Mr. Yonas Gebru Gebreegziabher is an Ecologist by training. He holds his MSc from Addis Ababa University in Ecological and Systematic Zoology. Mr. Yonas’s career of environmental activism started in 2005 on joining a local environmental NGO called Forum for Environment (FfE), a pioneer non-governmental organization in Ethiopia dealing with environmental advocacy and awareness. Yonas also served as an Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Akirma Magazine, a bilingual magazine on environment and development in Ethiopia from 2005-2015.
Currently, he is a National Coordinator of the Consortium for Climate Change–Ethiopia (CCC-E), a network of national and international non-governmental organizations based in Ethiopia and working on environment and climate change related issues. CCCE is a designated National Platform of the largest continental CSOs Coalition, the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). Yonas also served as a pre-college Biology Instructor before joining FfE.

Augustine Njamnshi was elected chairperson of Technical and Political Affairs for the next three years. He is a Lawyer with more 26 years of environmental/Forest policy and governance advocacy in Cameroon and the Central African sub-region. He has long experience in legislative and policy drafting in the areas of Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing, Biosafety, Biosecurity, Access to Environmental Information and Public Participation in decision making. Augustine has also held and continues to hold several elected positions representing African Civil Society of the environment sector at the international level. He has been the pioneer Chair of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance 2008-2012 the UNEP Major Groups Representative for Africa 2010-2012, The Francophone African Coordinator of the Access Initiative. He was the African Civil Society Representative on the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility as well as the Carbon Fund.

Samson M. Shivaji is an experienced Kenyan civil society practitioner, with over 13 years’ experience in civil society coordination, advocacy and influencing, as well as capacity building. He is a holder of MA (Project Planning and Management) and BSc (Agriculture). Samson has worked in various sectors, including sectors, including food security, environment and climate change, livelihoods, and water and sanitation.