1. Introduction

Rachel Chimwemwe Sibande (born January 9, 1986) is a Malawian technology expert, computer scientist, STEM educator, social entrepreneur and innovator. She is the Founder and Director of Malawi`s First innovation Hub and incubator for emerging start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovators, mHub. Rachel is an entrepreneur in the technology and energy space. Apart from the Hub, Rachel is Chairperson at Girl Effect Malawi and Board member at GiveDirectly Malawi.

Since the establishment of mHub, Rachel has championed the development and deployment of innovative technology solutions across fields such as Elections Monitoring, Citizen Engagement and Agriculture in Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Rachel has over a decade of industry experience spanning academia, development and social enterprise domains.

2. Early Life and Education

Sibande was born in 1986 in Lilongwe, Malawi, the daughter of Ethel (née Muyaba) and Ben Chavula, and the oldest of five children. Her father is an accountant and her mother was first a home economics teacher at vocational college and later a rural development specialist.

Sibande attended Our Lady of Wisdom Secondary School, a Catholic school in Blantyre. When she was 15, she was selected to attend the University of Malawi's Chancellor College. In 2006, Sibande graduated with a Bachelors, majoring in Computer Science with a credit.

Shortly afterwards, she took up her first job as a developer at Globe Computer Systems. She then moved into education, teaching ICT at Malawi's elite high school, Kamuzu Academy, known as "the Eton of Africa".^[1] She left the Academy to pursue a Master of Science in Information Theory, Coding and Cryptography at Mzuzu University in 2007. There, she also taught Statistics as an Adjunct lecturer in the Department of Mathematics. She graduated with a Master of Science degree with distinction average of 80% in 2010.

In 2010, Sibande got a fully funded PhD scholarship from Institute Markets Technologies (IMT Lucca), but had to forego the opportunity as it coincided with the birth of her first child. She later took on another PhD opportunity in 2015 from the Computer Science Department at Rhodes University in South Africa.^[2]

3. Tech Career

Rachel Sibande founded Malawi`s first innovation hub and incubator (called mHub) in 2013. Since mHub`s establishment, Rachel has impacted over 40,000 young innovative entrepreneurs with digital and entrepreneurial skills to champion and develop sustainable business solutions.^[3] Through mHub, Rachel created an entrepreneurship curriculum and implemented projects aimed at supporting promising entrepreneurs on three pillars; Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She also pioneered initiatives called Children`s Coding Club and Girls` Coding Club (cf Code Club) to show young people and especially girls how to develop games, animations and mobile technology applications,^[3] creating a generation of technology creators.[3] Through the coding initiatives, Rachel’s mHub has trained over 1,000 children and 5,000 girls in basic ICT skills and software development.

In 2012, Rachel became an alumna of President Obama’s ,Young African Leaders Initiative. She later delivered a TED talk in 2013 on the subject of using technology for agricultural development. In 2015, she received the Anita Borg Scholarship from Google, now called the TechWomen Scholarship programme. The scholarship is given to outstanding female computer science students from around the world. She also served a Country Director for USA based non-profit entities ACDI/VOCA and Agribusiness Systems International on USAID funded projects to enhance structured agricultural trading systems in Malawi.

In 2016, Rachel became Malawi’s Ambassador of the Next Einstein Forum Initiative which promotes Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). In the same year (2016), she was listed by Forbes Magazine as one of Africa`s promising entrepreneurs under the age of 30. Onwards, Rachel became the first local licensee for TEDxLilongwe [4] 

, an initiative under TEDx, a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to create a knowledge sharing experience.

In 2017, Rachel became one of 14 youth who were honored by the Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi at Egypt`s first World Youth Forum (WYF) for establishing Malawi`s first ever innovation hub and incubator. Rachel joined Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) at United Nations Foundation in September, 2017 as Program Director Data for Development, supporting health and food security projects in African countries. She also founded a company called Earth Energy, focusing on generating electricity from maize cobs using a thermal chemical process. The initiative seeks to establish rural microgrids that can lead to sustainable livelihoods.

In March 2018, Rachel won first prize on her pitch concerning generation of electricity from maize cobs using a thermal chemical process at the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) Global Gathering in Rwanda. Later in October 2019, Sibande was listed by Forbes Woman Africa as one of the new wealth creators.

4. Working in Elections

In the 2014 Malawian general election, Sibande worked as a technology expert, leading the development and deployment of a mobile and online voter verification system and a citizen journalism for real time monitoring of elections for independent observers and citizens. Almost 400,000 citizens were verified voter IDs through digital platform. Over 1,500,000 messages sent through citizens' reports and from observers on incidences related to the electoral process.

Sibande offered technical support on a similar initiative for the 2015 Tanzanian general election. She also led as ICT expert in the 2016 Zambian general election. Moving to 2019, as Malawi draws near to the Tripartite elections on 21 May, comes Rachel`s latest Election Monitoring System called 'Maso Athu'(Our Eyes). Through the Hub, Rachel has partnered with The National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) to develop an ICT led reporting platform for independent observers and citizens on incidences as they happen around the elections.

5. Honours and Awards

• 2019: Recipient of 'Forbes Woman Africa Gen Y Award', at the Forbes Africa Woman Summit, South Africa
• 2018: Awarded $25,000 (K18 Million) for innovative ideas at Next Einstein Forum (NEF), at Global Gathering in Rwanda

Guest speaker at the UN World Data Forum on operationalizing mobile phone network data for development and humanitarian action.

• 2017: Founded Earth Energy focusing on energy-renewal technology.

Honored by the Eqyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi at Egypt’s first World Youth Forum (WYF) for establishing Malawi`s first ever innovation hub and incubator. 

Severd as Program Director for Big data (DIAL) at Digital Impact Alliance, United Nations Foundation development projects in African countries.

• 2016: Listed by FORBES as one of the 30 most promising young entrepreneurs in Africa ^[5]

Named Ambassador for Next Einstein Forum (NEF) ^[6] Listed on Forbes Magazine as one of the top 40 innovators under 40 in Africa^[7] First local licensee for TEDx Lilongwe.

• 2015: Recipient from Southern Africa of the Google Anita Borg Scholarship; a prestigious scholarship given to female outstanding computer science students from around the world.^[2]
• 2013: Delivered a TED talk on the subject of using technology for agricultural development.
• 2012: Alumna of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative

6. Personal Life

Sibande is married to Chrispine Sibande, a Malawian human rights lawyer. Chrispine is an ardent champion for minority rights in Malawi and is currently working on abortion law reforms.^[8] [8] Together, they have three children.