BRIEF BIO OF TOM MKHIZE

Thomas Mkhize, BA, University of Zululand, Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Resource Management, University of Natal; MA (ELT), University of Warwick, UK.

Tom has extensive experience working in the fields of education and community development which includes leadership capacity development and social change facilitation locally and internationally. He has worked in both rural and urban contexts with CBOs, NGOs (local and international), as well as with elected and traditional community leaders. His experience includes working within public sector, civil society, higher education and private sector environment.

Trained in 2003 as a coach, change agent and facilitator through the Leadership Development for Results and Community Capacity Enhancement Process programmes of the United Nations Development Programme, Tom has worked as a community change consultant in various contexts across the African continent. These include countries like Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland Lesotho, Namibia and Kenya.

Tom has also undergone formal training in other participatory methodologies which include the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), and the Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Knowledge Systems (RAAKS). Like Community Capacity Enhancement methodology, these ways of working seek to bring about improvement in areas of social concern by engaging target groups in facilitated dialogues where those involved learn together and move towards change goals.

Influenced by the experience of facilitating self leadership as well as communal change, Tom co-designed a programme for school leadership and school communities which combined leadership development and dialogue approach to tackle social malaise, such as HIV and AIDS and teenage pregnancy, in schools and facilitate change from within. The programme was first implemented in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal under the sponsorship of Telkom Foundation in 2005. It has since been implemented successfully in seven districts in KwaZulu Natal (2010/11) With a specific focus on teenage pregnancy, Tom has implemented a similar programme in three districts in the province of Gauteng in 2012 – 2013.

Tom started his career as a teacher in 1985 and worked for thirteen years in the department of education as a teacher.