Joyce Banda appointed into global nutrition board

The Canada-based Micronutrient Initiative (MI) has announced the appointment of Joyce Banda, former president of Malawi to its Board of Directors.

Banda has been appointed alongside Phyllis Costanza, CEO of the UBS Optimus Foundation, according to an announcement by the institution through its website –http://micronutrient.org/.

The Micronutrient Initiative provides affordable and innovative solutions to end micronutrient deficiencies across the world. It brings together technical experts, advocates, analysts, evaluators, educators, resource managers and nutrition champions who can end what is called hidden hunger. MI aims to improve the lives of close to 500 million people in more than 70 countries.

“It’s an honour to welcome such accomplished leaders to the MI Board of Directors. With their support, MI will continue to broaden its impact on a global scale to ensure the most vulnerable people in the world can, through good nutrition, reach their full potential,”said Strive Masiyiwa, MI Chair in a statement.

Masiyiwa says both new appointees bring a wealth of experience in international development, diplomacy, policy development and business to the Board.

“Her Excellency Dr. Joyce Banda was the President of the Republic of Malawi from 2012 to 2014. She was Malawi’s first female president and Africa’s second. Voted as Africa’s most powerful woman by Forbes Magazine for two years running, Dr. Banda is a champion for the rights of women, children, the disabled, and other marginalized groups,” reads the statement.

It says Costanza is the CEO of the UBS Optimus Foundation, where she develops and implements strategies to ensure impactful grant making. Prior to this, she was Director of Leverage at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.

Costanza also worked for 10 years as a management consultant and for three years in the office of New York State Governor Mario Cuomo, advising on policy and politics.

The Board of Directors’ role is to provide leadership to MI as it expands its current programming in the areas of child survival, child health, growth and development and women’s and newborn survival.

Malawi’s former leader said she is looking forward to joining a group of committed and influential board members from all over the world to put an end to hidden hunger, saying there is great need in the world for dynamic organizations like MI “to help scale up nutrition.”

Banda is expected to be attending her first MI Board Meeting on Friday, October 24, 2015 in Washington DC, USA.

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