Chipokota Mwanawasa is the Policy Advisor to the President of Zambia, His Excellency Hakainde Hichilema, and also serves as the Deputy Head of the Presidential Delivery Unit.

Prior to this, she was the Legal Officer and Executive Assistant to the Vice-President of Human Capital at one of Africa’s largest integrated copper mines. In addition to her corporate and political career, she is also an agri-entrepreneur and trade retailer, having set up an innovative livestock crowd-farming venture, which she has grown into a meat retail SME.

Ms. Mwanawasa was educated at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she received an MSc in Public Policy. She also holds an LLM in Commercial Law from the University of Cape Town and an LLB in English and French law from the University of Kent. Ms. Mwanawasa has also worked as a researcher in the United Kingdom, Zambia, and South Africa.

Ms. Mwanawasa was a recipient of the prestigious Chevening Scholarship in 2018 and was also awarded the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award by the Zambia Bureau of Standards in 2018. Furthermore, she co-authored the discussion paper Elections in Africa: Preparing a Democratic Playbook with the South African think-tank The Brenthurst Foundation and is involved in charity work and advocacy for the underprivileged.