Sheilla Benyera
An accomplished expert in HIV program design and evaluation with over 20 years of experience in HIV and AIDS Program Management, with a special focus and technical expertise on HIV and GBV prevention and access to services for communities including Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYWs), organizational and institutional development, technical assistance, and capacity building. She has a proven record of performance in activity design, leading teams, and implementation of administrative, management, and procurement systems for large country and regional program efforts in diverse settings across southern Africa.
Sheilla currently serves as the Chief of Party for the CCI PEPFAR USAID South Africa Community Responses Program and was also the Chief of Party for the CCI PEPFAR USAID SA Strategic Communications Program between 2018 and 2019. In 2016, Sheilla was the Chief of Party and Project Director for the Management Sciences (MSH) USAID southern Africa Leadership, Management and Governance (LMG) Project. She provided leadership for MSH implementation of the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) program in Lesotho, PEPFAR USAID Zimbabwe DREAMS Initiative, Discovery Channel TB Movie production, finalization of the SADC Cross Border Transport Industry Minimum Standard Operating Procedures and the USAID Regional HIV and AIDS Program (RHAP) SHARE platform.
In 2015, Sheilla served as a Programs Director for Grassroot Soccer South Africa a not-for-profit entity that focuses on Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH) and uses soccer as a hook to educate, inspire, and empower young people to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS. Between 2011 and 2015, Sheilla served as a Capacity Building Technical Advisor and Regional Program Lead for MSH’s Building Local Capacity (BLC) Project supported by the USAID RHAP. She provided technical leadership in preparing regional, regional integration bodies and national organizations to receive, manage and report US Government (USG) funds directly as part of business re-engineering for USAID Forward strategy.
Between 2009 to 2011, Sheilla served as a Grants Officer for the Southern Africa Trust (The Trust) managing a portfolio of over seventy (70) grants and projects across SADC that focused on human security, HIV/AIDS and health, Finance, trade, investment and pro-poor growth; regional dimensions such as migration, social protection, rural development and poverty reduction. Before moving to South Africa, Sheilla was a Deputy Director for a national network of over 200 AIDS Service organization in Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe AIDS Network). She participated in various national processes as part of the national HIV and AIDS response including being an alternate member for civil society on the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) for the Global Fund Against AIDS, TB and Malaria. She sat on a number of TWGs and Advisory Committees for the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (MOHCW) in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe National AIDS Council and UN agencies. She was the interim chairperson/caretaker and representative of the Zimbabwe National Network of People Living with HIV (ZNNP+) for a year and led strategic processes including resource mobilization for the continuity of the network as an entity. In earlier years, Sheilla supported capacity building processes for organizations in AIDS Service Organizations in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi to respond to HIV through a regional capacity development program she coordinated.
