Hope Chigudu is a feminist activist with decades of experience in feminist movement building and feminist leadership development. Over the years, Hope has honed her skills in organizational development, health and well-being; a philosophy of work/life balance enunciated in her book: Strategies for Building Organizations with a Soul. It is a manual that offers a context for organizational sustainability that goes beyond financial and institutional structures and systems, to highlight how we need to address, reflect and nurture the heart of our visions and missions if our organizations are to thrive and survive. Its focus on power relationships, on ‘care’ and on putting values and principles at the heart of organizational systems and activities introduces new ways of thinking about how organizations operate effectively and with meaning.
She provokes, stimulates and encourages organizations to go beyond business as usual, to dig deeper and avoid falling into boredom, routine and organizational erosion.
A sociologist by training, Hope holds an MA in Development Studies with a focus on women and development. After a start in the corporate world, feminism opened Hope’s eyes and she joined the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Zimbabwe “a changed woman.” Later, recognizing the need for women’s autonomous spaces, she became a founding member of the Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network. Her experience includes periods working with European funders and the UN, before she set up her own consulting organization.
As a women's rights activist and an organizational development strategist, she has supported a great many African and international justice groups, working in most African countries from Ghana to South Africa and serving on the boards of the Global Fund for Women, Urgent Action Fund-Africa, Oxfam SA, the Global Fund for Community Foundation .