Maxwell Madzikanga
About Maxwell ...
Maxwell Victor Madzikanga is a British citizen, born in Zimbabwe, and a visionary senior programme leader with more than twenty years of experience in humanitarian aid, public health, and international development across fragile and conflict-affected contexts in Africa, Asia, and the United Kingdom.
Maxwell's career began in Zimbabwe, where he held formative leadership roles in education, health, and community mobilisation. These included serving as a Senior Secondary School Teacher in Economics and English Language within the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture, where he mentored more than 500 students each year and advanced health awareness among more than 1,000 young people as School Health Master and Provincial Youth Reproductive Health Officer. He later became HIV and Health Programme Coordinator at Family AIDS Caring Trust, where he led advocacy efforts that reached more than one thousand people living with HIV and AIDS and secured more than five hundred thousand pounds in donor funding from partners such as USAID and Plan International. His subsequent roles included serving as the National Social Support and Community Mobilisation Coordinator at the National AIDS Council, where he contributed to developing an integrated national HIV and tuberculosis strategy. He also served as the National Programmes Director and Country Director at Youth Alive Zimbabwe, where he developed a strategic plan that reached more than 10,000 young people. He went on to serve as Health and HIV Programme Coordinator at Africa University, where he developed the institution’s HIV and AIDS strategy and championed orphan support. He later became the Africa Region Women and Youth Programme Coordinator with the American Friends Service Committee, where he coordinated initiatives supporting more than 5,000 women and young people while securing essential donor investment.
Maxwell progressed into senior public health leadership roles within the United Kingdom public sector, including positions in local government and the National Health Service. At Southampton City Council, he directed COVID-19 programmes that delivered targeted risk assessments and contact tracing to reduce transmission among vulnerable populations. He led the Public Health Champions initiative, which included a multi-faith vaccination seminar that engaged more than seventy stakeholders to strengthen vaccine confidence. He also developed risk assessment frameworks that enabled the safe resumption of significant events and implemented infection prevention protocols. At Somerset County Council, he conducted risk assessments across multiple settings, designed contact tracing systems, and supported outbreak management and vaccination operations. He later served as Delivery Strand Project Manager for the Service Modernisation Programme for Health and Care at the Department for Work and Pensions, where he oversaw national digital and automation initiatives that streamlined processes and improved the experience of beneficiaries. Internationally, he directed large-scale and high-impact programmes, including the twenty-one million-pound DAWAM multisectoral initiative in Afghanistan for World Vision International, the fourteen-million-dollar m‑mama maternal and child health programme at Touch Foundation in Lesotho, and the multimillion-dollarGRID3 geospatial data initiative at Flowminder Foundation across several African countries. Through these roles, he advanced equitable health access for millions of people in partnership with donors including the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Vodafone Foundation, and USAID.
Maxwell holds a Master of Science in Public Health from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, where he specialised in epidemiology, disease control, and reproductive health. He also holds a European Master of Bioethics, awarded Magna Cum Laude, and degrees in Psychology and in Politics and Administration from the University of Zimbabwe. He is an alumnus of the British Council’s Interaction Leadership Development Programme, the United States Department of State Exchange Visitor Programme on voluntary sector management and governance, and the International Cancer Programme Management Fellowship at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. He is recognised for his trauma-informed and collaborative leadership style. He brings extensive expertise in strategic governance, health systems strengthening, and data-driven decision-making, with proficiency in tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Stata. He is experienced in PRINCE2 and Agile methodologies and holds HEAT and other professional certifications. He remains committed to advancing localisation, capacity building, and sustainable systems change within organisations that are driven by strong values.
