MEMBER
ANGELA NGUKU
BScN, MN, MAPPM
Founder and Executive Director, White Ribbon Alliance Kenya Global Co-Chair, White Ribbon Alliance movement.
Angela Nguku is the Founder and Executive Director for White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) Kenya, a people-led movement for Reproductive, Maternal, New-born Health and Rights (RMNH) and Gender Equality. She is also the Global Co-Chair of the WRA movement. A graduate midwife and a passionate reproductive, maternal, newborn health advocate and champion, Angela’s’ career spans over 17 years of dedicated work towards ending preventable maternal and newborn deaths globally and amplifying the voices of marginalized and vulnerable populations and frontline health workers in Kenya, throughout Africa and globally.
An accomplished advocate and thought leader, Angela combines her proven influencing and negotiation skills in advocating for the accountability for RMNH and frontline health workers. Angela spearheaded the unprecedented What Women Want Campaign , the campaign that changed how programming should be done. Coining the ASK-LISTEN-ACT approach, Angela believed that the self-articulated needs of women and girls and end users (Grassroots communities) in general should be the starting point for development and that development should start from a place of asking and listening to women, girls and people in general to better understand their needs and wants. Angela is a sought-after RMNH and advocacy technical expert and trainer nationally, regionally and globally on issues reproductive, maternal newborn health, quality, Equity and Dignity in care, self- care, decolonizing global health and development, gender equality and human rights, social accountability among others. She has extensive knowledge and hands-on experience managing and evaluating multi- donor, multi-year and multi-country programs.
Angela has served and still serves on various global committees and global boards including the Peoples’ Advisory Board of the Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems in the SDGs Era, the CSO Advisory Group for the Global Action Plan for Healthier Lives and Well Being, The Joint Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality and Every Newborn Action Plan Management Team, the Global Steering Committee for AlignMNH, The Global Health Council Board, Merck for Mothers Advisory board, the Global Commission to overcome information gaps before, during and after pregnancy for women with severe chronic diseases, The WHO Postpartum steering committee among others.
Angela, A Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2018 Goalkeeper is a sought after expert Keynote speaker and panelist in the Global health and development sector and has written various articles and publications on the need to invest in citizens self-articulated health needs in shaping the global health agenda, why quality health care - defined by women and girls self-expressed needs matters in the UHC era, why investing in midwives and Primary Health Care is a best buy, why health literacy is an essential catalyst to achieving the SDGs, the triple threat to Maternal and Newborn health, why decolonizing global health and global aid is critical among others. Angela has published various articles on peer reviewed journals around the issue areas she works on. She is currently authoring a book that will be in circulation soon, chronicling her life lessons.