OUR STAFF
Ricki was born in Botswana and graduated with a BA in International Relations and Criminal Justice from Monash University. She is a passionate human rights advocate for trans people and communities. Some of her work involved regional research on trans populations in Africa and transgender human rights monitoring and reporting to regional and international human rights mechanisms such as the UN and the African Commission; Protection for the rights of transgender and gender variant persons on campuses.
Ricki is also a co-founder of the Southern Africa Trans Forum (SATF).
Phil is a European-African human rights activist and currently serves as the Research Development Director. Her focus is on rights for the people who have been the most left behind. Phil uses research, policy analysis, community watchdogging, advocacy, and accountability as tools. She specialises in conceptualising new ways to work in the gaps and innovate the way work is done by activists, development partners and other stakeholders.
Throughout her career, her passion for ethical, inclusive and participatory research has driven high quality and needs-based research. She says she is at her happiest when she has the freedom to develop innovative projects and responses that allow her to merge her multidisciplinary roots and interests in pedagogy, psychology, community work, technology, the life sciences, political theory and a desire for high design and accessible communication. Life motto - disturb the comfortable; comfort the disturbed.
Sheriff Mothopeng is a gender non-conforming person, LGBTI activist and archaeologist by profession with a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental History and Cultural Heritage from the National University of Lesotho and other certificates of achievements in Public Policy, Governance and Leadership and Marginalization, Exclusion and Inequality through OSISA.
Sheriff has been working towards the elimination of discrimination and meaningful inclusion of LGBTQI identifying youth, produced two films, and on the global and Southern African region on trans rights. Sheriff is the first person to achieve legal name change and access gender-affirming surgery in Lesotho, thereby opening the door for others.
Lucinda is a South African who has worked in the South African NGO sector for the past 13 years. As an African feminist and human rights advocate Lucinda’s passion and drive centres on gender, women’s human rights and sexual rights. Lucinda’s knowledge is grounded through reflecting together with local communities on rigid gender and sexuality norms and structural drivers which underpins gender based violence and gender inequality.
Lucinda’s theoretical knowledge, research and writing skills was further expanded through taking up a Masters Degree in Gender and Development at Institute for Development Studies at Sussex University in England in 2008.
Mats is our current AAI Director for Finance & Operations, since January 2017. Before this he was the Deputy Executive Director of the International AIDS Society. He started his employment with the IAS as Conference Director in 2003, running one of the largest medical conferences, the International AIDS Conference, normally with 15.000-25.000 participants. Prior to this Mats was the Director of Member Services at the International Cooperative Alliance.
Mats brings years of expertise on finance and organisational management, as well as his roots as an activist to his work at AAI. He is 66 years old, of Swedish origin, living and working in Switzerland for international NGOs since 1992.
Bob Mwiinga Munyati is a Zambian and a Senior Researcher at AIDS Accountability International (AAI) with an academic background in Demography and Economics from the University of Zambia and a Master of Public Health from University of Cape Town. Bob has for the past 5 years managed the SRHR global and African regional commitments section of AAI’s work with a focus on the Maputo Plan of Action, ICPD Beyond 2014 and Sustainable Development Goals through research and advocacy. In addition, Bob currently leads on AAI’s challenging criminalisation globally project.
With +10 years of work experience, Bob has previously worked for Clinton Health Initiative Access, Population Services International, and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and Family Health International 360 in various research and programmatic portfolios related to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Alexandra is an International Relations specialist, and currently a Resource Mobilisation Assistant at Accountability International. She holds a MSSc in International and European Relations from Linköping University, and a BA in Political Science from University of Bucharest. Recently, she became a member of the United Nations Association of Sweden. Alexandra’s journey through the ‘sociological imagination’ of International Relations enabled her to develop a creative and critical thinking, thus complementing her dedication to equality and human rights, regardless skin pigmentation, religion, or any other socio-cultural affiliations.
She is also particularly interested in gender-based violence research aimed at policy chance. On a more personal note, she was born in Bucharest and is passionate about fine arts.
Denis Nzioka is a sexual, and gender minority activist, and journalist with a particular focus on LGBTIQ+ and Sex Worker communities in Kenya, and in Africa. He has worked for both regional and international organisations that focus on health, human rights, media, movement building, grant-making, and advocacy.
A pioneer, he ran, albeit covertly, Kenya's first safe house for LGBTIQ persons in 2009. At the same time, he was the first Kenyan to publicly come out on national TV. Since then, his articles, and blogs have been featured by various media outlets across the world. He has also been making regular TV, and radio appearances from 2004.
He also started the first - and only - LGBTI magazine in Kenya, Identity Kenya, that ran for 8 issues, as well as was the first, in the continent, and globally, in 2014, to unveil an LGBTIQ news App, available on Google Stores. In 2011, he co-edited Gay Kenya's book 'My Way, Your Way or the Rights Way' and in 2019 published an anthology book of Kenyan allies speaking out for LGBTIQ rights. The book, titled “Rafiki Zetu: Kenyan LGBTIQ Stories, as told, by Allies,” is arguably, Africa's first, and probably, the world's!
Keen on grass root organising, he has been instrumental in the formation of several organisations in Kenya that focus on queer and sex worker's rights, while supporting regional organising around SOGI/E and sex work issues. This has seen him being often consulted to various LGBTI & sex work related national and international policy papers.
He was named as one of the World's Top 10 Tweeters on Sexuality and Development by The Guardian's Global Development Professional Networks in 2014, in addition to receiving multiple other accolades, and awards, since 2009. In 2018, South Africa’s LGBTI Awards, the Feathers, honoured him with their 10th anniversary Africa Feather Awards.
Ellis Tsetse was born in Zimbabwe and is currently an intern at Accountability International. She holds a double bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry, human anatomy and Physiology and an honours degree in medical Biochemistry. Currently, she is pursuing a Master's degree in Medical Biochemistry at the University of Cape Town. Ellis is a strong human rights advocate whose passion is centred amongst young girls and women. She is very passionate about raising awareness about HIV and AIDS and issues pertaining to Gender Based Violence.
Currently she is a member of HAICU (HIV and AIDS coordination Unit), a society that actively assist individuals that are usually discriminated and often marginalised in society because of their sexual identity. Ellis hopes to stand as an inspiration to young girls who dream to have a career in science and show them that it can be done. She hopes to mentor young girls to become advocates for women and sexual rights and to create sustainable community projects for women in her home country.
Miriam is European and is currently a research intern at Accountability International. She has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and has been working in different hospitals, nursing and researching. Today she is studying the master’s program in global health at the University of Gothenburg.
Miriam is especially interested in the interplay between politics and health and this interplay’s connection to religion and human rights. She is also passionate about raising awareness for sustainability issues and is therefore involved in a number of projects connected to the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030.