­­Wezi Mvalo is the Head of Fundraising and Development at IDS, helping to coordinate its resource mobilization; partnerships, including alumni engagement; and grants administration activities.

The Fundraising and Development Office (FDO) operates a number of critical functions for the Institute including: building donor relationships; fundraising and horizon scanning across different funder sectors, e.g. government agencies, bi- and multi-laterals, research councils, foundations, trusts, private sector, etc.; engaging with High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) including private philanthropy; providing large and cross-cutting bid support and proactive engagement in bidding processes and calls; building and supporting ‘back office’ infrastructure systems; coordinating and managing frameworks and long-term agreements; facilitating partnerships management; engaging with alumni; and supporting the Institute’s overall approach to research strategy and research ethics activities.

The FDO team works closely with staff across the Institute in research and knowledge clusters, project support teams, Communications and Engagement, Finance and the Directorate to develop a strategic and powerful approach to fundraising and development. As such, the Office is critical to the overall intellectual, financial and reputational success of the Institute.

Wezi has a doctorate (PhD in Education) attained from the University of Sussex. Wezi’s research interests relate to the complex ideologies behind sexuality education framings in socially-conservative education settings, specifically focusing on power relations of different players. Additional research interest areas include: education governance, curriculum development, education implementation policy, and pedagogy. Wezi is also part of the teaching team on IDS’s MA Gender and Development, where she brings a particular interest on the intersectionality between gender, education and development.

Before joining IDS, Wezi worked for a substance misuse charity for women and families in the heart of Brighton. Wezi has also worked with the Malawi judicial service on a DFID-funded project whose objective was to help reduce prison congestion in Malawi through the provision of non-custodial sentences for minor offences.

Past opinion

Is ‘sanitised’ sex education good for countries with a high prevalence of HIV?