Panel Discussions BAYMAU26

Jenny Mushegera is an international development specialist and experienced moderator with extensive expertise in international cooperation, project management, and multi-stakeholder engagement. As Regional Desk Officer for one of Germany’s largest development cooperation organizations, she strategically oversees more than 70projects across Southern Africa, focusing on social justice, human rights, and sustainable development.
A committed advocate for youth empowerment and Africa’s development, Jenny has contributed to several pioneering initiatives, including the Model African Union Summit and as the founder of CongoExcellence. She also served as Deputy Secretary-General of the African Union Diaspora Youth Initiative, founded by the Permanent Mission of the African Union to the European Union, and was one of 20 African women leaders selected for a competitive leadership program at the African
Union’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York. In recognition of her engagement in international cooperation and civil society, she was invited by the Federal President of Germany to attend the New Year’s Reception at SchlossBellevue.
Her moderation experience spans high-profile conferences and multi-stakeholder dialogues for clients including the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg, Stiftung Entwicklungs-Zusammenarbeit BW, the Working Group on Peace and Development (FriEnt), the European Union Global Diaspora Facility, and Black in Tech Berlin. She is known for her ability to create dynamic, inclusive spaces that connect policymakers, practitioners, and young leaders. Jenny holds a Master of Science in Leadership and Development from King’s College London and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Hochschule Rhein-Waal.

What role can development policy play in reshaping harmful gender norms?

“Development policy can play an important role in addressing the structural drivers of harmful gender norms and in supporting more inclusive models of masculinity. This requires a sustained commitment to engaging with and amplifying local actors who are already contesting these norms, and to incorporating their perspectives into policy design and implementation.”

Christabel Aba Sam holds a PhD in Literary Studies, MPhil in English Language and a Bachelor of Education (English option) degrees from the University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast – Ghana where she currently works as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English. Her current research
interests include African Women Writers, Masculinity Studies, Postcolonial Futures, Spatial Politics and Ghanaian popular culture. She remains curious and engaged with historical questions about
gender, sexualities in Africa’s environments, and the practice of oral history in Ghana and beyond.
Christabel has published both single and co-authored papers in prestigious outlets including Scopus and/or Web of Science indexed journals. She is currently embarking on a new book project about men and masculinities in Ghana’s sonic spaces. Christabel is a fellow at the African Multiple Cluster
of Excellence both at the Lagos ACC and the Bayreuth Academy in Germany.

Why is rethinking masculinity important for building inclusive futures?

“Rethinking masculinity is important for building inclusive futures because it leads to the gradual extinction of fixed gender identities and rejuvenates gender fluidity and performative choices. These create safer and supportive environments for sustainable developments.”

Samah Khalaf Allah is a Sudanese human rights defender, feminist, and SRHR advocate.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Community Health Management from Ahfad University for Women 2013- Omdurman, Sudan, and a Master’s degree in Gender, Development, and Peace from the Regional Institute of Gender, Diversity Peace and Rights 2020- Omdurman, Sudan, currently, she’s a Doctoral Researcher at university of Bayreuth.

Why is it important to include queer perspectives in conversations about gender justice? Or Why is challenging dominant ideas of masculinity important for achieving gender justice?

“Gender justice operates as a governed field that stabilizes gender into legible forms aligned with heteronormative norms, sustaining the structures through which inequality is reproduced. Queer subjects remain embedded within this social fabric while refusing its terms, exposing gender as socially produced, regulated, and enacted, and revealing how harm is organized through normative frameworks of belonging and recognition. Without queer perspectives, gender justice reproduces the very order it seeks to challenge; through this disruption, it shifts from managing difference to interrogating the conditions that sustain power, where dismantling rigid gender norms becomes central to any transformation of inequality.”