Charmaine Picardo
Charmaine Picardo is a Regional Development Consultant and Gender Equality, Social Inclusion and Health Development Specialist with more than 10 years of experience strengthening programmes, organisations and partnerships across Southern Africa. Her work sits at the intersection of gender justice, organisational development, youth leadership, health development, strategic partnerships and systems strengthening, with a strong focus on translating evidence and policy into practical, locally led action.
Charmaine brings extensive experience in programme portfolio management, organisational capacity strengthening, technical advisory, partnership management, Results-Based Management, facilitation, learning and knowledge development. She has led and supported multi-country programmes reaching out to the 16 SADC Member States, provided technical accompaniment to implementing partners in 10 countries, and led capacity strengthening, movement building and mentorship initiatives involving youth-led and youth-focused civil society organisations across 14 countries.
Her regional experience includes supporting women- and youth-led organisations to strengthen programme quality and institutional capacity; developing and facilitating Communities of Practice and regional learning platforms; coordinating multi-stakeholder partnerships involving governments, regional institutions, UN agencies and civil society; and contributing to policy advocacy and systems strengthening on gender equality, SRHR, youth leadership and social inclusion.
She also contributed to the development of the SAfAIDS FEmCAP Toolkit, integrating feminism, economic empowerment and climate action approaches into SRHR programming, and led its rollout and the capacity strengthening of political, religious and traditional leaders from the 16 SADC Member States.
Most recently, Charmaine held a senior regional programme role with SAfAIDS, where she led and supported programmes spanning gender, SRHR, youth empowerment, advocacy, communications and organisational strengthening.
She holds an MA in Gender Studies from the University of Sussex and a BSc (Hons) in Sociology from the University of Zimbabwe. Charmaine is also a Mandela Washington Fellow and Canon Collins Trust Scholar. Her consulting approach is collaborative, practical and grounded in equity, locally led change, learning and sustainable systems strengthening.