Moureen Wagubi is a visionary leader and a transformative advocate for gender equity in technology and agriculture. With over 15 years of expertise as a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Gender Specialist, Researcher, and Community Development Expert, Moureen has dedicated her career to driving impactful change through innovative solutions. As the CEO of the Institute for Social Transformation, she spearheads initiatives that integrate digital technology to empower women in agriculture. Her ground-breaking work includes the development of the Market Garden App, a pioneering platform that revolutionizes market access for rural women farmers, enabling them to sell their products online seamlessly.

In her influential role as a Steering Committee Member of the Gender is My Agenda Campaign Network (GIMAC), Moureen leads the agriculture cluster at the African Union level, advocating for transformative policies that prioritize gender inclusion. Her strategic insights and commitment to gender mainstreaming are demonstrated through her active participation in the advancement of sustainable digital transformations.

A certified trainer in innovative pedagogical methodologies such as Training for Transformation and Gender Action Learning Systems, Moureen excels in fostering participatory and inclusive environments. Her dedication to coaching and mentoring amplifies her impact, guiding the next generation of leaders in utilizing digital tools for social and economic empowerment. Moureen’s unwavering commitment to leveraging technology for gender equality makes her an invaluable voice in the discourse on inclusive digital infrastructure and its pivotal role in economic growth.

Atuhaire Shinah is an extraordinaire communications officer at Institute for Social Transformation with a highly successful background in the achievement of public relations through building and maintaining positive relationships with the public. After graduating with an honors degree in Mass Communication (Public Relations) from Uganda Christian University- Mukono last year in March 2019, she started her volunteering journey with IST as a dedicated communications volunteer.

Shinah possess excellent communication, strong interpersonal skills, leadership and the ability to create a positive change to the people she associates with. Utilizing her expertise, she has been pivotal to managing IST Instagram account, taking eye catchy photos, writing reports and taking led in developing and publishing IST quarterly newsletters.

Lokubar Felister is the Happiness Officer at Institute for Social Transformation and she is responsible for staff members’ welfare. Felister ensures that the office premises are in good shape. She also coordinates the weekly wellness exercises which rejuvenates the lives and health of staff members. Briefly, “Felister is the life of IST.”

She previously worked with Welthungerhlife as nutrition officer and volunteer for WASH project handling reproductive health, menstrual hygiene management intervention by use of menstrual cups.

She is a Gender, Human rights and development practitioner with a strong background in Education, Social work and Adult literacy Empowerment. She holds a degree in Social Sciences from Makerere University, Diploma in Community Development Education of Kimmage Centre in Ireland and Diploma in education secondary/DES of Kyambogo University. In addition, she also has a Post Graduate Certificates in Research methods & Writing skills and a Certificate in Administrative Law.

With over 10 years continuous experience serving at the different levels of organizations both governmental and largely in civil society Sylivia served as; a Senior, middle level and junior officer in the key fields of; Gender, policy advocacy Human Rights, livelihoods and economic empowerment, , democracy and good governance, and Adult Literacy and groups empowerment.

She has a great passion for the most disadvantaged groups in society i.e. women, girls, elderly persons, and PWDs who are disproportionately affected by the various social economic, societal ills and driven to contribute to their empowerment while Journeying with them to self- determination.

Sylivia is also an Alumni to the Worlds famous Training for Transformation ñ A community Development Education methodology adopted from Paulo Freire. Sylivia is also A Trainer and has been a Coach on the Project of Adult Learning and Communityí Groups Empowerment Implemented in Wakiso where she mentored Group Facilitators and monitored the ongoing groups formation and empowerment activities in the District.

Sylivia also has time and space to build the self, family and contribute to her community wellbeing; she is therefore a very active member in her own community where she takes social responsibility as a duty and therefore holds a number of memberships in different community and family associations.

Through her passion of being an advocate for gender equality and Women empowerment, she has embraced the cause from the day she entered the organization. She has participated in the women’s movement building and now she’s part of the Women’s movement with feminist practices. Since 2017 when she was recruited as a volunteer, she has held different positions among which includes the Program Assistant in 2019 where she accomplished different activities of planning, organizing, mobilizing, rapporteur and conducting trainings and also represents the organization in different Fora conducted by other development partners.

She has written reports on work done by IST some of which has been published on different media platforms including Social media and also been part of the Market Women project journey.

In addition, in January 2020, she held the position of program officer to lead a project on formation of cooperatives by market women which defines her current working status. As part of the above, she longs for a world where men and women share a better space for justice, peace and equality.

Gender equality is not a woman’s issue, it’s a human issue that affects us all