Laurence Uwera

Laurence Uwera has over 15 years of experience spanning the fields of education, child welfare, gender inclusiveness, community and civic mobilization, behavior change communication, and program management and leadership.  Ms. Uwera started her professional career as a classroom teacher and progressed to ever-increasing leadership and project management positions with international nonprofit organizations and implementing partners, including with World Vision in Rwanda, Child Fund International in Guinea, and SOS Children’s Villages International in Rwanda.

She currently serves as Deputy Chief of Party for the USAID Renforcement de la Lecture Initiale pour Tous (RELIT) in Senegal. RELIT builds on previous USAID-funded efforts to improve early grade instruction and reading outcomes for children in Wolof, Seereer, and Pulaar—three national languages in Senegal—in seven sub-national regions.

Previously she served as Chief of Party for the Read Liberia Activity, a five-year project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development that aims to improve early grade reading skills among Liberian students in Grades 1 and 2 and to pilot test an emergent literacy skills intervention for Liberian students in public Kindergartens in six targeted counties. In this role, she was responsible for the overall leadership and management of the program and served as the primary liaison to USAID, the Ministry of Education, and other key stakeholders. She oversees project performance and ensures the quality and timeliness of program deliverables.

Before joining RTI, Ms. Uwera represented FHI 360 in Guinea and was Chief of Party of a USAID-funded Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance health governance project, supervising a team of 30 staff.

Ms. Uwera is a member of the Rwanda Association of University Women and has completed several certifications, including Systems to Support Early Grade Reading (University of Massachusetts Amherst’s College of Education), Certified Project Management for Development Professionals (PMD Pro) Level 1 (APMG International), Roles of Civil Society Organizations in Aid Effectiveness course certification (Danida Fellowship Centre), Development Asset Profile course certification (World Vision International), Certified Proposal Pro (World Vision International), and HIV/AIDS and Food and Nutrition Security course certification (Wageningen University).