10 minutes with Maureen Luba, Africa Region Advocacy Advisor at AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, Lilongwe, Malawi

### Biography Maureen Luba is the Africa Region Advocacy Advisor at AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) where she helps lead capacity building efforts around strategy development, data analytics and use for advocacy for Civil Society Organizations in Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Malawi to effectively engage in Global Fund, PEPFAR and national policy decision-making processes. She graduated from the University of Malawi with a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration. She has more than 10 years of experience working on HIV treatment and prevention and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) programmes. She is a Women in Global Health LEAD Fellow and a visiting scientist for the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University. She also serves as one of the board members for International partnership for microbicides where she continues to advocate for increased access to HIV prevention and SRHR options for young African women. She is also one of the Vaccine Enterprise advisory group members. ![Graphic][1] As we all know, we are dealing with a novel pandemic, and each day brings us new revelations about this novel virus. We also know that the social and economic impact of the pandemic varies across the globe due to several underlying factors, but we are only finding out the extent of this impact as the pandemic unfolds. This dynamic and variable impact demands inclusive decision-making rooted in moral leadership ethics and guided by the reality on the ground. Researchers, policy-makers, funders and programme implementers must first find out what that reality is from the front line and take this into consideration when making decisions. Since a lot remains unknown about this virus, leaders need to also continue investing in education and capacity building of communities to support and enable involvement of the broader community in the COVID-19 response. I have worked in the HIV … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif