Hon. Jemma Nunu Kumba is the current Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare of South Sudan. She founded the Sudan Women Parliamentary Caucus in 2004 at the start of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and became a member of the Sudan Parliament from 2005 to 2008, continuing to the present with the South Sudan Transitional National Legislative Assembly, with a specific legislative focus on women’s empowerment and participation in governance.
Hon. Kumba served as the Governor for the Western Equatoria State from 2008 to 2010, Minister of Housing (2010-2013), Minister of Electricity and Water Resources (2013-2015), and Minister of Wildlife and Tourism (2015-2019). She has served as the acting Secretary-General of South Sudan’s ruling party, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement since 2015.

Hon. Kumba actively engaged in the high-level national consultation on the development of the South Sudan commitments for the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development immediately after her appointment to the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare. This was followed by her impassioned statement of support for the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls affected by the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan at a side event during the 2019 UN General Assembly in New York.