Claudine Muyala Tayaye Bibi
Democratic Republic of the Congo

Claudine Muyala Tayaye Bibi has served as Chairperson of the non-governmental organization (NGO) platform Program for the Call to Women's Action (PAAF) for two decades. PAAF provides grants and micro-loans to other NGOs and designs joint media campaigns to publicize UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the Nairobi Declaration, which calls for the active participation of women in the Inter-Congolese dialogues. Ms. Tayaye Bibi was recently chosen as Chairperson of the Congolese women's association Civil Society's Committee on Dialogue, and she has been President of the Congolese branch of All-Africa Women for Peace and Vice President of the Federation of African Women for Peace. As an advisor to the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Minister of Health and Family from 1990 to 1997, she headed the program on the integration of women in development. Among her primary concerns is the destabilizing role of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the DRC. In addition to being an activist and community leader, Ms. Tayaye Bibi has spent the past 20 years as an educator. She currently holds the position Senior Lecturer at the University of Kinshasa, where she heads the Department of Economics, Law, and Polytechnics. Ms. Tayaye Bibi was the first Chairperson of the Women's Catholic Movement in the Archdiocese of Kinshasa (1985-1989) and the Catholic Action Movement for Men, Women, and Youth (1994-2000).

Ms. Tayaye Bibi's peace-building activities include:

• participating in a UNIFEM-supported meeting of Congolese women in Nairobi in preparation for the Sun City talks — at the meeting, the group drafted the February 2002 Nairobi Declaration, calling for women's involvement in Congolese peace building;
• participating in the February 2002 Sun City Inter-Congolese talks as a civil society expert-UNIFEM support at this meeting allowed Ms. Tayaye Bibi and other women present to call for their inclusion in talks without fear of losing funding;
• chairing the January 2002 meeting of the Committee to Assess the Common Works of Civil Society in the DRC, where representatives from national women's organizations in the Congo came together to evaluate their work;
• organizing workshops in rural and urban areas on women and peace, democracy, and negotiation skills, in cooperation with UNESCO, the Canadian Embassy, and FAO, the UN organization on food and agriculture;
• participating in the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, as well as numerous international conferences on women's capacity building and women in development; and
• organizing PAAF events for the United Nations Week of Peace (September 21-28), including special workshops on Resolution 1325, marches, and public service announcements.

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