Blessing Mawire Email & Phone Number

In this role, I lead the project implementation and stakeholder management at country and institutional levels for 13 countries across various locations in the global south. I monitor and evaluate the project implementation and review county reports, while aligning work to the global goals.I work with a team in each country to strengthen the research ecosystem with a focus on the quality, quantity based on the use of Research4Life which enable access to high quality information resources and supports the linked research ecosystem.I lead the identification of key countries for implementation, negotiation process for formal agreements and the development identification of key stakeholders in the country for further partnerships.I work with the UN Programme teams and the Research4Life committees, together with the country teams to understand the nuances of the regions and countries. This enables better customization of the activities and our main outputs and outcomes.

Washington, United States

Washington, United States

South Africa

Integra Professional Services is a consulting organisation with a focus on development work. Specific areas of work include:- Project Management- Project Design and Development- Data Collection and Management- Knowledge Management - Programs design and development- GRAP 103- Policy Development- Monitoring and Evaluation - Fundraising

Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

I led a programme that is building youth into future professionals with high level skills using different approaches. My other main role was implementing a standard for the accountability, management and maintenance of heritage assets converting from manual to digital (R32m). In this role:• I designed the Graduate Development Programme's Competency Framework, Training Plan, Approach and Sustainability models.• I achieved adapting the policies and standard for heritage assets in South Africa to be applied to the NLSA's collection. The GRAP Standards are mandatory for all entities and the NLSA had not applied this standard. • I delivered the youth programme and design methodologies to enable absorption of the project into the entity in a sustainable manner. • I created monitoring tools, assess risk, build basic and advanced digital literacy into the programme, collaborate internationally with mentors and professors to enhance the skills and develop a synergy of the GDP to achieve compliance to the standard.• I also developed policies, advised on the institutional strategy, enhanced in-house skills building and led panel discussions.• I was part of initiating a Fundraising Team and worked on a successful grant within 1 year of its inception. • Webinar facilitation and administration of various platforms were also part of my work.

Centurion, South Africa

The United Nations Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries is strengthening Science Technology and Innovation in the world’s least developed countries to ensure alignment to the world’s development agenda. I consulted as a Country Coordinator leading the coordination and implementation of the Digital Access to Research programme.• I led the coordination of work in 4 countries (Liberia, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda) and supported the work in another 3 countries (Bangladesh, Nepal and Rwanda) during 2018. This included:• Project design and delivery,• Coordination with regional and country Research and Education Networks (NRENs) to support last mile connectivity to marginalized, underserved and low resourced communities,• Partnering with local research institutions to broaden local digital initiatives,• Tailoring capacity building activities for researchers, information professionals and scientists in basic to advanced digital literacy,• Aligning capacity building interventions with the Digital Access to Research objectives, while also aligning to the continental, regional and national research and development frameworks in Science Technology and Innovation,• Developing project planning and tracking tools such as Gantt charts, theories of change, log frames, SharePoint Files and calendars, data collection tools and evaluation of progress,• Mentoring and leading Country Focal Points based in the countries,• Leveraged strategic partners at national and regional levels such as ministries, national research bodies and Internet service providers,• Budgeting and allocation of resources to planned activities,• Training and Facilitation of workshops and meetings,• Creating initial south to south networks within the countries of work,• Liaising with Research4Life and its key partners especially those focused on research capacity building,• Representing the project in key meetings and media engagement,• Monitoring and Evaluation,• Report Writing, Budgeting.

In this role I achieved the Business Process Review of a government institution with over 200 employees. I led the • Conceptualization of the approach, • Strategic design, • Creation of field data instruments, • Implementation, • Data analysis and main report writing.I led the team in key meetings with the institution and in collection of evidence, both primary and secondary.

Centurion, South Africa

In this role, I led project management and project delivery with a focus on maximizing impact while achieving sustainable results. I also led on:• Coordination of multiple projects (DFID, WHO, FAO, UNEP, WIPO, Elsevier Foundation, CTA, FOSS, Wikipedia Foundation and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded projects),• Project design and tracking,• Conceptualizing, writing or Theories of Change, and grant writing,• Leading collaboration with key international partners,• Risk evaluation, reporting and mitigation planning.• Contracts management,• Budget preparation and monitoring of expenditure,• Linking national, regional and international frameworks to foster development for excluded, low resourced and marginalized communities,• Multi-country Team leadership and coordination,• Managing team performance and mentorship,• Writing and presenting reports, conference papers and publishing project learnings,• Online and Face to Face curricula design and development,• Training and Facilitation,• Moodle Administration.The Research4Life programmes is a set of public-private led partnership which has been running since 2002. These programmes are led by four key United Nations agencies (WHO,FAO,UNEP,WIPO) in partnership with leading publishers, universities and other organizations. The programmes provide digital access to current research content to researchers, academics, students and other professionals in LMICs. I contributed to the curricula development, training and marketing of the R4L programmes for more than eight years working across Sub Saharan Africa. I also worked on the development of tailored curricula for Sub Saharan Africa which not only enhances the skills to use the R4L programmes but also includes inherent lifelong learning skills to support research and application of the content provided. This is advancing digital inclusion and empowering marginalized societies to use evidence-based resources to improve local opportunities.

Pretoria Area, South Africa

As a Senior Programme Officer, I led the implementation and coordination of multiple country projects.I orchestrated the implementation of a new business development arm in the organization which has since brought in significant revenue. Other key skills gained during this time are:• Redesigning of frameworks,• Facilitation of the learning process among teams with a view to identify good and best practices,• Establishment and management of effective partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders,• Capacity building (online [Moodle, Adobe, Blackboard] and face to face) using various methods,• Training medical workers in Evidence Based Practice and Critical Appraisal of evidence,• Management and moderation of online and offline Communities of Practice,• Technical Report Writing,• Monitoring and Evaluation,• Continuing Education for Professional Development training (CEPD) conceptualization and implementation.One of Rwanda’s vision is to build a knowledge economy. With funding from UKAID (DFID), I led the project management and the implementation of a three-year project to work towards building a knowledge economy in Rwanda. This focused on improving the reading culture, in building critical thinking skills through models such as student-centered approach in teaching and learning and creating innovative ways to provide information access for low resourced communities. The approach included building basic digital literacy for the staff and learners. I worked in 7 provinces with a focus on teaching institutes and primary schools. Another key component was detailed monitoring and evaluation as the model used in this project was meant to inform change in policy for the line ministries and boards. I did intense monitoring of the activities and provided extensive quarterly evaluation reports to track outputs, changes in practice and impact.

In this role, I led the capacity building of a number of projects mostly focused on researchers. An example was formulating and implementing an effective outreach, training and support programme for the Research4Life (www.r4l.org) programmes, in particular, WHO led HINARI, FAO led AGORA and UNEP led OARE in Sub- Saharan Africa (SSA) in order to reach the region’s set targets.The Cornell led TEEAL (www.teeal.org) programme was under my portfolio and this focused on the capacity building modeling and implementation. I carried out extensive training and marketing for the TEEAL programme for the SSA region.

Pretoria Area, South Africa

This role was training ground for developing skills in line with my professional growth. In this role, I supported:• Events preparation and management,• Workshop packs preparation,• Stakeholder logistics arrangements,• Synthesizing of training materials,• Coordination of remote country workshops logistics and planning,• Desk research for development of projects and programmes,• Shadow the work of senior colleagues.

Harare, Zimbabwe

This role was mostly centred on logistics and coordination for think tanks;- Coordination and logistics.- Meeting minutes taking and summarizing.- Travel logistics for stakeholders.- Small budget management.- Follow up on target audience.

Ma Development Communication, Development Communication, 71%

My research was focused on sustainable solutions for Communication for Development in low resourced communities. I researched small holder.

Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management

· Major: Knowledge Management Practices, Processes and Platforms · Minor: Establishing an institutional Knowledge Management Strategy ·.

Bsc Honours, Information And Library Science

· Major: Information and Library Science · Minor: Knowledge Management, Information Communication Technologies, and Information.