Fighter for Gender Equality Named New African Woman of the Year

Geraldine Joslyn Fraser-Moleketi, Special Envoy on Gender at the African Development Bank (AfDB), was named "2016 New African Woman of the Year" by the London-based publication New African magazine. Growing up under the guidance of her grandmother, who was an active trade unionist, Fraser-Moleketi developed a keen political awareness and she joined the struggle for freedom in Apatheid South Africa in the 1960s and '70s. While in exile in Zimbabwe in 1980s, she was drawn into the military structures of the ANC and joined its military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. She went on to serve successive terms in the post Apatheid South African government as Minister for Public Service and Administration (1999 to 2008) and as Minister for Welfare and Population Development (1996-1999). Before joing AfDB, Fraser-Molekti occupied the position of the Director of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Democratic Governance Group, overseeing the organization's related strategic and policy work in 197 countries and territories around the globe.