Tawonga Chihana joined Natural Justice in November 2022 as the Coordinator for the African Environmental Defenders (AED) Initiative. Her role is to coordinate and oversee the implementation of the Initiative across the organization and work closely with the regional focal points in South, East and West Africa hubs to develop advocacy strategies and legal empowerment programs, to strengthen environmental defenders’ rights and enhance the legal protection of environmental human rights defenders across Africa.
Before joining Natural Justice, Tawonga worked extensively on community land rights in Malawi, supporting communities, civil society, national and international organizations in formulating program strategies to secure communal land and promote responsible land-based investments through customary land formalization, community-led advocacy, legal empowerment, capacity building and corporate engagement. She has also been involved in community land conflict resolution, working with international organizations such as Landesa to share best practices on achieving Responsible Land Investments; and the International Land Coalition to defend communities against land grabbing in Southern Malawi.
