Mary Okumu

Kenya (Regional Expert: Horn of Africa)

Bordering Sudan, where ongoing civil war has displaced nearly 10 percent of the population, Kenya has seen swells of thousands of refugees cross its border, seeking safety. Mary Okumu is regional coordinator for El Taller Africa, a Tunis-based human rights organization bringing together women from different cultures. One of the leading conflict analysts, advocates, and trainers in the Horn of Africa, she has spent the past two decades working throughout the region on health policy, population program development and management, and human rights and gender advocacy. She has supported the Sudanese peace process since 1996, working in refugee camps and on the front lines on both sides of the conflict, and has trained members of southern Sudanese militias and civil society organizations in mediation, conflict resolution, conflict transformation, health education, and survival skills necessary in regions facing armed conflict. Best known for her human rights advocacy, Ms. Okumu has held executive positions in the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF), OXFAM America, the Forum of African Development Organizations, Feed the Children, and the Meals for Millions/Freedom from Hunger Foundation. Recently named Kenya’s representative on the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Civil Society Regional and National Steering Committee, she is contributing to the 2003 discussions on conflict transformation and peace building. She was a parliamentary candidate in the 2002 national elections in Kenya as a member of the Kenyan African National Union, a multiethnic coalition. Ms. Okumu has coordinated community empowerment programs on policy analysis, development, and health, as well as collaborating with AMREF on research projects to improve health care for women and children in rural areas of Kenya. She holds both a master’s of public health in maternal and child health policy and services and a master’s degree in African studies from the University of California at Los Angeles; she is currently a doctoral student in gender studies at South Africa’s Witswatersrand University. In 2000, she was awarded the USA Peace Foundation’s prestigious Peace Award.

Ms. Okumu’s peace-building activities include:

• drafting, with others, Kenya’s gender policy;
• representing Kenya at the 2000 Beijing + 5 conference, and acting as a member of the Beijing Platform for Action National Facilitation Group;
• promoting the role of women in official peace processes with governments and intergovernmental bodies throughout the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes Region, including IGAD and the East African Community;
• facilitating discussions among women from Kenya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Sudan (among other countries) on coalition building, peace initiatives, and sustainable development;
• designing a conflict resolution training manual for women’s groups in Sudan, and mobilizing Sudanese women to protest and prevent violence in their country; and
• participating in the design of the African Committee for Peace and Development Task Force, a joint initiative of the African Union and the Economic Community for Africa.

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