Purpose, compassion and impact – These are the three words that best define Farai Mubaiwa’s journey as she shapes a better Africa through her work in international development, youth development, gender equality and African growth.

Farai is the Africa Livelihoods and Education Lead for Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP a Strategy Manager for Accenture. In this role she works with clients in the international development space to tackles issues of youth employment, digital and future skilling, gender equity and education. Her most recent projects included working with UNICEF’s global and local teams on the strategy and implementation of Yoma – the Youth Agency Marketplace – across numerous countries including South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria.

She formerly served as the Chief Partnerships Officer at the Youth Employment Service (YES). YES is a business-led NPO works in partnership with government and labour to initiate policy changes which incentives the creation of jobs for youth. It is during her time at YES that Farai started a social media blog ‘Tips for Millennial Managers’ which provides key tools and tips to enhance the employability of young people. The series has had over 110k views across its episodes covering topics ranging from the perfect CV, to salary negotiations, to interviewing with confidence, as well as high-growth industries to align to.

Prior to YES, Farai served as a project manager at The Aurum Institute, a leading African TB and HIV research and implementation institute. Her main project Youth Health Africa focused on decreasing the spread of HIV and reducing the high levels of youth unemployment by equipping 10 000 youth from heavily- burdened communities with knowledge and education about HIV and AIDS; and providing skills development and employment to ensure that disenfranchised youth contribute to South Africa’s healthcare.

Prior to Aurum, she was an intern at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). She achieved a distinction for her MSc in the Political Economy of Emerging Markets at King’s College London. Her dissertation on South African Private Companies and Black Women, examined the effect of the Employment Equity Act (affirmative action policy) on the representation, corporate experience and career projection of black women and received a mark of 85%. Prior to her Masters, she worked at Deloitte as an analyst for Strategy and Operations Consulting.

Farai co-founded of youth-led organisation, Afrika Matters which empowers young Africans to lead through leadership skills, capacity building and community-impact projects. She has since left the organisation to pursue other livelihoods and education ventures on the continent. Farai is a Queen’s Young Leader for South Africa, a TEDx speaker, a One Young World Ambassador and a King’s Principal Global Leadership Award Recipient. In 2018, she was named one of the top 100 Mandela’s of the future by Media24 and in 2020 she was ranked as one of the top 100 influential young South Africans.

Farai is a Dalai Lama 2019 Fellow and the 2021 recipient of the Stellenbosch University Exceptional Alumni award. In 2022, Farai became an Honourary Member of the Golden Key International Honours society and also won the TransUnion Rising Star award for the Service: Public and Private sector category. Farai is also a board member on the Africa Skills Alliance (ASA), a Canadian-based think tank on a mission to tackle workforce challenges through evidence-based strategies in Africa, as well as Scouts South Africa.