Gift Numeri is the Executive Director of Point of Progress (PoP), a Malawian civil society organisation working to advance youth and women’s empowerment, sustainable agriculture, food systems transformation, climate resilience, and inclusive development. He provides strategic leadership to the organisation’s programmes, partnerships, institutional development, and policy advocacy across Malawi. He has over 19 years of experience in civil society, development programming, policy advocacy, governance, youth leadership, and organisational management. He has worked with national and international civil society networks and development partners, including the Scaling Up Nutrition Civil Society Network, where he served as Shifting the Power Officer and worked with stakeholders across 20 countries. In this role, he supported youth leadership and participation, mentored National Youth Coordinators, strengthened partnerships between civil society alliances and young leaders, supported sub-grant due diligence, and developed capacity-building and MEAL systems for youth-led programmes. Before joining Point of Progress, Gift served as National Director of the Civil Society Agriculture Network (CISANET), providing leadership on national policy engagement around agriculture, food systems and rural development. He has also worked with Save the Children and previously served as Executive Director of the Network for Youth Development, where he led programmes focused on youth participation, governance, rights and development. Throughout his career, Gift has worked closely with government institutions, civil society organisations, development partners, communities, and youth and women’s groups. He is experienced in building partnerships, facilitating multi-stakeholder processes, mentoring emerging leaders, strengthening organisations, managing development programmes, and translating policy priorities into practical community-level action. His work has included engagement on food systems, nutrition, agriculture, climate resilience, governance, youth inclusion and rights-based development. Gift holds a Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Malawi and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Africa Bible College. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Business Leadership at the Malawi University of Science and Technology, focusing on the influence of pol