Joanna Foster

Joanna Foster, "a co-founder of the AWDF, has been a social activist for over thirty years. She became a member of the Campaign Against Nuclear Disarmament at 17. All through her life she has been involved in founding organisations or supporting initiatives for social justice. She is a qualified lawyer in the UK and in Ghana, the country of her birth. She has practiced in both countries for many years, concentrating on Civil and Political Rights in Ghana, and Immigration and Women's Rights in the UK.

"In her spare time, she has been was involved in activism around poverty, race equality and women's rights. She gave legal advice voluntarily to the Pre-school Playgroup Association of England and Wales for three years as their honorary legal adviser. She provided the same pro bono service to various women's centres and black organisations in the UK. She was also a Trustee of the Child Poverty Action Group of the UK. In the 1990s she entered the NGO sector full time, first as the Country Director of CUSO, Ghana, a Canadian Non-Profit organisation committed to social justice around the world. She was once the Regional Coordinator of Women in law and Development in Africa, the leading women's rights network in Africa, a post she held for four years. WILDAF is a pan-African network of organisations and individuals dedicated to promoting and strengthening strategies that link law and development to increase the capacity of women to enjoy all their human rights. She is one of the founders of the Gender and Human Rights Documentation Centre based in Accra, Ghana."

• Executive Board, African Women's Development Fund