Lawule Shumane works in the Office of the Director of The Gates Foundation's Africa office, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. In her role, she supports the foundation's work across the African continent, implementing strategic initiatives related mainly to global health and economic opportunity.
Prior to her role at The Gates Foundation, Lawule worked in the Project Management Office of the president of South Africa. There, she was a key member of the president's COVID-19 response team, then became a director focused on issues ranging from energy security, water security, attracting skilled labor, and digital infrastructure. Before joining the South African government, Lawule was an analyst with Dalberg Global Development Advisory in South Africa.
As an economics scholar, Lawule’s interests lie at the nexus of politics and economics — understanding how governments, globally, can better service their populations, thus, gradually reducing citizen deprivation. She has been actively involved in South Africa’s civic society, working for a non-profit labor research organization where she published articles on the behavior of South African multinationals in other African countries regarding their Community Social Responsibility and Environmental (CSRE) practices, as well as a study of CEO remuneration for listed companies in South Africa. Lawule completed her undergraduate studies and earned a master's at the University of Cape Town, where her dissertation focused on assessing the role of school-level stakeholders in improving the provision of services in the public education sector. She earned her MA in global affairs from Yale in 2017.