Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi

Director, Democratic Governance Practice

United Nations Development Programme

Ms. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi joined UNDP as Democratic GovernancePractice Director in January 2009.Geraldine has served the Government of South Africa for over 14 years invarious positions, most recently as Minister for Public Service andAdministration and Member of the South African Parliament. Prior to this,she was Minister of Welfare and Population Development. She has alsoserved in a number of leadership roles within Parliament, including asChairperson of the Sub-Committee on Rules of the National Assembly of the Parliament of South Africa.Geraldine began her career in politics in 1980 when she left South Africa for Zimbabwe to join the AfricanNational Congress in exile where she worked in its political and military structures. During her period inexile, she worked in the areas of administration, communications and development. She returned to SouthAfrica in 1990 to contribute to South Africa's transition to democracy.She is a Member of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration, has publishedvarious works on public administration, and has delivered numerous papers at both national andinternational conferences. She served on the Cabinet Committees for Economic Affairs, SocialAdministrative Affairs, Security and Intelligence and the Committee on the Service Conditions of PoliticalOffice Bearers. She helped to coordinate the transformation of the Child and Youth Care System andcontributed to the work of an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Poverty and Inequality.Geraldine has been instrumental in mainstreaming gender into government policies. She led South Africandelegations to the Organisation for African Unity and Commonwealth Women Minister's meetings andchaired the Youth Minister's Conference of the OAU in Addis Ababa as well as the Pan AfricanConference on Women's Development, Equality and Peace in Rwanda.Geraldine’s leadership role stretches well outside government. She serves on many Boards, Committeesand African Regional Institutions. She was awarded a fellowship to the Institute of Politics at the KennedySchool of Government. She holds an M.A. in Public Administration from the University of Pretoria.