About Rudo Sanyanga

Adviser

Rudo Angela Sanyanga Hungwe is an environmental scientist and activist based in South Africa. Born in Zimbabwe, she spent the first ten years of her professional career as a freshwater research biologist on Lake Kariba before moving to university teaching and scientific research administration. She holds a doctorate in freshwater system ecology from the Stockholm University and has spent nearly three decades of her working life on numerous research and consulting assignments in the Zambezi River basin especially on Lake Kariba. She has also worked on a number of other river basin ecosystems in over 20 southern, central, eastern and west African countries. These assignments have given her first-hand experience of the sustainability issues surrounding natural resource utilisation on the continent as well as the impact of development activities on the lives of vulnerable people.

Over the ten-year period, 2011 – 2021, Rudo was the Africa Regional Director for International Rivers based in Pretoria, South Africa, responsible for directing highly impactful research and advocacy campaigns against socially and environmentally destructive hydropower infrastructure on the continent while promoting more environmentally friendly renewable energy alternative programs. She oversaw the growth of the International River Africa Programme into a highly regarded science-based advocacy organisation.

She currently works as a consultant for a number of organisations and initiatives in African countries, using her experience to provide technical analysis and advice on the establishment of environmentally sustainable and gender sensitive water and sanitation infrastructure projects at community level. She has developed some effective gender assessment guides.