Rev. Dr. Lydia Mwaniki is the Director for Gender, Women and Youth Department at The All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC). Before then, she was a lecturer in New Testament; Gender and Theology; & Gender and Development at St. Paul’s University, Kenya, and has supervised several dissertations in these areas. Lydia graduated with PhD in Theology (NT and Gender) from the University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa in April 2011, and a Master of Theology in African Christianity (MTH) from the same University in 2001. She is a priest in the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK), Nairobi.  She has participated in several UN and AU platforms on issues of gender justice and empowerment of women and girls, such as Commission on Population and Development (CPD 51 and 52) in New York, as a member of the steering committee in the development of the new AU Strategy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE), and is currently involved in organizing participation of Religious Leaders at the Nairobi Summit (ICPD25) to be held in Nairobi from 12-14 Nov, 2019. She has a wealth of experience in delivering advocacy interventions around Sexual and Gender Based Violence, including sexual violence against children. She strongly advocates for increased participation of men and youth in the fight against SGBV and gender equality. Lydia’s most recent book publication in August 2018 is: Gender and Imago Dei: A Postcolonial African Reading of 1 Corinthians 11:1-16.