Evelyne Opondo is Director of ICRW Africa, with over 20 years of experience in gender issues, human rights, law, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

Prior to joining ICRW, Evelyne served as the Senior Regional Director for Africa at the Center for Reproductive Rights based in Nairobi, Kenya. In this role, she was responsible for developing, communicating, and executing strategies, as well as mobilizing resources to ensure successful delivery and sustainability of the mandate of the Center in Africa.

Prior to joining the Center for Reproductive Rights, she served as the Regional Policy Associate for Ipas, a global SRHR organization, where she focused on regional norm building working closely with the regional human rights mechanisms and partnering with both government and non-government organizations across a number of African countries to contribute to health systems strengthening. From 2004- 2010, she worked for the Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya, a premier women’s right organization where she advocated for a broad range of women rights issues and held a series of progressively responsible positions.

Evelyne began her career in 2001 as a State Law Officer in the Office of the Attorney General of Kenya working mostly with poor and vulnerable widows in the administration of estates particularly the identification and collection of assets and beneficiaries, litigation, and subsequent transfer of estates. She also has written a number of opinion and issue-oriented articles, primarily on women’s rights.

She is a board member of FP2030 and the Chairperson of the Advisory Committee of the Reproductive Health Network – Kenya. In May 2022, she was selected for WomenLift Health’s inaugural East Africa leadership journey, a program that provides the tools, mentorship, and coaching support to help expand the power and influence of women leaders in global health.