Until November 2012, Sisonke Msimang was the executive director of Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa.
Previously, she worked for a range of bilateral and multilateral agencies including the Australian Agency for International Development and various United Nations agencies. In addition, she worked in the academic arena, having done a stint at the African Gender Institute, based at the University of Cape Town. Msimang also worked for the United Nations Women’s Development Fund within the Fund’s Human Rights and HIV and AIDS Program based in New York.