By GoldenWoman.org Writer
Her name is Ms. Sylvia Mwichuli. She is an agent of change. Over the years, as a top communication guru in diverse organizations, she has encouraged journalists across Africa, to take the development story, from the African perspective more seriously.
Her love for mother Africa is indisputable. Traveling across cities in Africa, she has made an indelible mark encouraging journalists- from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Malawi, South Africa and so on, to take the agribusiness stories more seriously as part of African economic development.
“Breakthroughs in millions of smallholders across Africa to become businesswise, made adequate income to maintain their families while at the same time being able to invest and save, should be the biggest measure of development in Africa,” she told a gathering of journalists in Accra, Ghana. That was on May 30, 2012.
Seems long ago, but it is words she has been replicating over and over, and dozens of business writers in mainstream media have taken her seriously.
She is a proponent of Africa, Africa, Africa first, where the governments and the citizens should concentrate on buying goods that are produced along the value chain of smallholder farmers.
Of late she has been advocating for mainstream media in Kenya to shift attention from succession politics which have preoccupied the public domain for almost 2 years, to really where it matters.
“There are a lot of development stories that are not being told.. A lot of innovation left untold because most of the headspace in the media is let to political stories. The media in Kenya need to change,” she said recently.
Sylvia is currently the Vice President, Policy Engagement & Communications at International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED), which is based in Nairobi. At the same time, she is the Chief Executive Officer – Public Relations Society of Kenya (PRSK
To journalists, Ms. Sylvia is known as a communication guru. In her work over the years in crafting communications strategy for international organizations working in Africa, and also during public policy engagement and advocacy across Africa, she has always managed to be a voice of reason to journalists, showing them that they matter, and they can excel and remain professional while playing a critical role in the Africa economic development agenda.
Over the years she has convened numerous national, regional and global conferences and has led communications, knowledge management and advocacy teams for various leading international organizations including the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the UN Millennium Campaign, ActionAid and the African Medical Research Foundation.
Sylvia Mwichuli is an African heroine, she is a golden woman, fighting for a better Kenya, Africa, and the world.