Kwanele Asante is a globally recognised African health justice activist with 15 years of experience. She works as a policy and legal adviser at the South African Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance.
Black people in Africa bear a disproportionate burden of communicable (infectious) and non-communicable diseases. Kwanele is an outspoken activist on how discrimination adversely affect black people’s health. Many people of African ancestry in South Africa, on the continent and in the diaspora die and are disabled because they lack access to quality and affordable health services and essential medicines.
As a chronic patient herself, Kwanele has made it her life’s mission to use health and human rights law to vindicate the health rights of this population group. She works to hold governments and international institutions such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) to their legal health and human rights obligations. She has worked as an educator on health law at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Using her knowledge and expertise, Kwanele has given presentations globally and recently presented at the World Bank and the WHO Technical Meeting in Washington DC. She served on the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Cancer Prevention and Control and contributed to policymaking. Kwanele has also worked as a research advocacy trainer for the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer.
The name of the organisation at which you work
South African Non-communicable Diseases Alliance
Your educational background, listing your qualifications and institutions, if any:
- MSc Bioethics and Health Law, University of the Witwatersrand
- LLB, University of the Witwatersrand
- BA Liberal Arts, Wesleyan University, US
Your greatest achievement
Receiving the Harvard Global Health Catalyst 2016 African Ambassador award from Harvard Medical School in Boston, US.