WDB Trust and Female Academic Leaders Fellowship partners with Wits University to address gender inequality across sectors through research and capacity building.
SALM TEAM 
The Women’s Development Business Trust (WDB Trust), an non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing the economic and leadership empowerment of women founded by Mrs Zanele Mbeki, have signed a landmark five-year strategic partnership with the Female Academic Leaders Fellowship (FALF).
This collaboration will see WDB Trust commit R15 million over five years to co-establish a Research Chair at Wits University, focused on generating evidence-based research on gender inequality and empowering South African women in academia.
FALF a non-profit organisation started by the Wits University Chancellor, Dr Judy Dlamini to support gender and racial transformation at senior academic leadership level and creating a holistic ecosystem for women’s leadership development in South Africa.
“Our vision is to see women not only participate in the economy but lead it. This partnership with Wits and FALF is a decisive step toward transforming the academic landscape, ensuring that African women are at the forefront of knowledge creation, policy influence, and societal change,” said WDB Trust CEO Mrs Riah Phiyega.
This was supported by the FALF CEO, Dr Xolelwa Zulu-Magwenyane, “This partnership amplifies the shared vision of social and economic empowerment of women”, she shared.
The new Research Chair will produce cutting-edge research on gender inequality across all sectors of South African society, develop African women researchers through Master’s, PhD and post-doctoral opportunities as well as empower African women academics to hold chairs of research and lead centres of excellence.
This initiative forms part of WDB Trust’s broader feminist leadership development strategy, complementing its Zanele Mbeki Fellowship (ZMF), which builds the early pipeline of young women leaders.
Targets and Deliverables by 2030
By 2030, the Research Chair initiative will deliver tangible outcomes that strengthen the presence and leadership of African women in academia. These include graduating African female Master’s students, supporting pre-doctoral interns, producing PhD graduate/s, and mentoring post-doctoral fellow/s.
In addition, the programme will appoint an African woman as the research chair who will lead the resourcing of the chair,. All beneficiaries will be African women, a deliberate focus that ensures the programme directly addresses the intersectional barriers faced by this group in higher education and research.
Strategic Alignment
This partnership is firmly aligned with national transformation goals in higher education, contributing to the country’s transition toward a dynamic, knowledge-based economy. It also reflects WDB Trust’s core mission of empowering women and eradicating poverty, reinforcing the organisation’s commitment to systemic change through targeted investment in leadership, education, and research.
Quotes
Zanele Mbeki, Founder of WDB Trust, said:
“This partnership is about dismantling systemic barriers for African women in academia. By investing in research, leadership, and knowledge production, we are creating pathways for women to lead at the highest levels of intellectual and societal influence.”
Judy Dlamini, Founder of FALF, said:
“It’s a true honour to partner with an organisation that has led the empowerment of women from grassroots all the way to the boardroom. This is in alignment with FALF’s vision of contributing to the systemic change through investment in women and tackling the country’s challenges. This will be a third research chair that FALF will be launching in the first quarter of 2026. The first is on Gender Based Violence & Femicide co-funded with the NRF and Ford Foundation, hosted at Wits University. The FALF/FREF/Nelson Mandela University research chair is in entrepreneurship and financial inclusion.”
