Tshego Bessenaar, MA
Tshegofatso Bessenaar is Ibis’s Vice President of Africa Programs, leading and overseeing Ibis’s work and partnerships in the Africa region. In this role, she combines her research and programmatic experience to lead work that amplifies and informs advocacy for sexual and reproductive health (SRH), including close work with governments to support initiatives for improving availability and provision of SRH services and information in the region. Key to her work is partnerships with stakeholders who seek to advance SRH. Using research, she drives advocacy efforts for social change around reproductive health and social factors it intersects with.
Trained as a Research Psychologist, her career has included community work, management of clinical trials, translating research to health programs, and leading multi-country research and monitoring and evaluation projects. Ms. Bessenaar has previously worked for WHO’s African AIDS Vaccine Programme’s ethics, law, and human rights group and Health Development Africa. She holds a Master of Arts in Research Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Psychology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is a 120 Under 40 New Generation of Family Planning Leaders nominee and passionate about people and leading work that causes sustainable and meaningful change.