Dorothy Nyasulu Biography

Ms. Dorothy Nyasulu has served as Assistant Representative for UNFPA Malawi since 2009, where she coordinates the agency’s sexual and reproductive health programs in the country in partnership with government, multi-lateral and bi-lateral agencies, and civil society to advance the Malawian government’s International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) commitments. As a leading champion of human rights, gender equality, and access to contraceptive choice, Ms. Nyasulu was invited to participate in the Bellagio consultation on rights and choice in family planning in 2012. There, she presented on the family planning situation in Malawi on access to contraceptive choice. She has since made a number of presentations at stakeholders meetings on the importance of reproductive rights and choice, highlighting the role of family planning programs in promoting the realization of a broad contraceptive method mix.

With over 20 years’ experience working in gender and reproductive health, Ms. Nyasulu previously served as Chairperson of the Malawi Human Rights Commission from 2004 to 2008. An untiring women’s rights activist, Ms. Nyasulu worked in the then National Family Planning Council of Malawi, a parastatal organization with the mandate to coordinate family planning and population activities in the country. In her positions as Project Director for Gender Equality with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and a Training Officer with ActionAID Malawi, she advanced gender equality. Ms. Nyasulu graduated as a registered nurse midwife from University of Malawi’s Kamuzu College of Nursing. She holds a Master’s in Women and Law from the University of Zimbabwe’s Centre for Women’s Law, a program of the Southern and Eastern Africa Regional Centre for Women’s Law (SEARCL) at the University of Zimbabwe.