• Who We Are:
• Social Transformation Programmes:
• Gender Section Staff

Gender Section Staff

Sarojini Ganju Thakur

Sarojini is Head of the Gender Section at the Commonwealth Secretariat and an Adviser for Poverty Eradication and economic empowerment. Her work involves direction and overview of the work of the Gender Section as well as leading on subjects related to gender and the economic empowerment of women. These include issues related to aid effectiveness, gender responsive budgets, gender and entrepreneurship, and gender and trade.

Before joining the Secretariat in 2004, Sarojini worked in various capacities in the Ministry of Women and Child Development in the Government of India and the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. She has also worked for the Department for International Development in India as a Rural Livelihoods Adviser.

Elsie-Bernadette Onubogu

Elsie is an Adviser in the Gender Section at the Secretariat. She is responsible for mainstreaming gender into democracy, peace and conflict policies and programmes within the Commonwealth. Her other role in the Secretariat’s work includes promoting women’s participation in governance and conflict management at a global level. Prior to joining the Secretariat in 2004, Elsie worked with the United Nations in various capacities on legal, gender and development issues.

Elsie previously practised law in Nigeria and served in banking industry.

Auxilia Bupe Ponga

Auxilia is an Adviser in the Gender Section. She is responsible for the public sector and governance in the Social Transformation Programmes Division.

Auxilia was previously Permanent Secretary for Gender in Zambia where she was the Chief Adviser on Gender and led delegations to the UN and other international meetings. She has also worked as a consultant with UN agencies, the World Bank and other bilateral agencies in Zambia. Auxilia has wide experience of working with civil society organisations in Zambia and in the South African Development Community region.

Meena Shivdas

Meena is an Adviser in the Gender Section. Her work involves issues of gender, human rights and the law, and gender and HIV/AIDS. She has worked on a range of women’s rights issues, focusing on policy and action research, human rights and gender sensitisation training, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Before joining the Secretariat, she worked in Asia, and has addressed gender and development issues in Nepal, Indochina, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Mongolia, Iran and Thailand.

Fatimah Kelleher

Fatimah is a Programme Officer at the Commonwealth Secretariat working on Gender, Poverty Eradication and Economic Empowerment Programmes.  Her work encompasses delivery of activities in pro-poor growth through enterprise development and gender responsive budgets, and the management of a major Department for International Development-funded capacity building project on gender and trade.

Fatimah was previously in the Education Section of the Secretariat where she carried forward the Universal Primary Education (UPE) portfolio in areas such as education sector planning, UPE sustainability, teacher deployment and education delivery to nomadic populations.

Before joining the Secretariat, Fatimah worked with state governments in Nigeria on institutional development projects, and has worked with civil society, government and NGOs in the Sudan and the UK on a variety of programmes dealing with both gender and education issues.  

Jennifer Fonseka

Jennifer is a Programme Assistant in the Gender Section of the Social Transformation Programmes Division.

Jennifer works on the Gender and Trade project within the Poverty Eradication and Economic Empowerment Programme which is funded by the UK Department for International Development. 

She has extensive administrative and programme support experience, working in the Economic Affairs Division and the Health Section of the Social Transformation Programmes Division.