Margaret Mliwa is a senior program officer based in the foundation’s office for East Africa in Nairobi. She has more than 20 years of social justice experience, working with government, civil society, and philanthropy to advocate for and implement policies that champion community-driven youth programs with an emphasis on youth voice, rights-based approaches, and strengthening leadership and capacity development among youth-led networks and organizations. She has been instrumental in catalyzing and nurturing the growth of local, national, and global youth social justice movements to push for government accountability and responsiveness, and to put mechanisms in place for meaningful youth engagement to improve resource distribution and service delivery.

Prior to joining Ford, Margaret was country director of Restless Development Tanzania, a global youth-led development agency. Before that, she served as head of the Youth Social Mobilization Unit of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of the government of Kenya and as lead consultant in the development of the National Youth Service framework for the Sierra Leonean government.

Margaret is a recipient of a Commonwealth Scholarship and holds a bachelor’s degree in education.