Office of the Directors

Sheila Tlou
Director
UNAIDS RST ESA 

Dr. Sheila Tlou joined UNAIDS as Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for East and Southern Africa (UNAIDS RST ESA) on 1 October 2010.

Dr. Tlou, a committed advocate for effective AIDS responses in the region, brings to this position more than 25 years of experience in public health programming for HIV prevention, treatment care and support.

Prior to joining UNAIDS, Dr. Tlou held the post of Minister of Health for the Government of Botswana from 2004 to 2009, where she spearheaded the country’s highly effective AIDS programme.

Dr. Tlou was employed at the University of Botswana in 1980, and has held the post of Professor of Nursing at the university since 1999.  At the same institution, she also held the positions of Head of Department and Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing and Midwifery Development in Primary Health Care from 1994 to 1998. 

A national of Botswana, Dr. Tlou holds a Doctorate of Nursing Science, majoring in Public Health Nursing and Research.  She has a Master of Education, majoring in Curriculum and Instruction in the Health Sciences from Columbia University, as well as a Master of Science, majoring in Public Health Nursing and Psychology, from The Catholic University of America, Washington D.C

Mbulawa Mugabe
Deputy Director
UNAIDS RST ESA 

Dr. Mbulawa Mugabe joined UNAIDS in 2002 as the first UNAIDS Country Coordinator for South Africa and served in this position from 2002 to 2008. He joined UNAIDS RST ESA in 2009.

In his current position, Dr. Mugabe leads the Regional Support Team in developing policy briefs, issuing papers and designing strategies to convince governments to review the way they deal with HIV and AIDS and related issues. Among other key leadership roles, he created a common vision at top political level, which highlighted the reasons behind Eastern and Southern Africa’s contribution to over 40 per cent of the global HIV epidemic and proposed solutions to this challenge across the region.

Prior to joining UNAIDS in 1998, Dr. Mugabe served as Head of the UNICEF Health Programme in Botswana. In this role he pioneered the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission Programme in Botswana. In 2000 he was appointed HIV/AIDS Project Officer in Uganda and subsequently headed the HIV/AIDS Unit at UNICEF in Uganda.

Dr. Mugabe started his career in 1985 as a Research Fellow at the University of Botswana’s National Institute of Research. He later became a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Health and Nutrition Programme. While in this position, Dr Mugabe chaired the Botswana National AIDS Committee (the forerunner to the National AIDS Council).

Dr. Mugabe, a national of Botswana, has an MSc and PhD in Medical Sociology from the University of London. He is the author of several academic articles and co-author of three books. In 1997 he became the first recipient of the Goran Starky Award for Child Health at the Institute of Child Health, Kareliska University in Sweden.