Akiiki Consulting was founded by Jessica Horn, a women’s rights advocate and writer. Jessica has consulted for a variety of clients including NGOs, foundations and international organisations in the areas of human rights, social justice and peacebuilding. She has worked on initiatives to advance sexual rights, end violence against women, support women living with HIV and ensure women’s rights in post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding.
Prior to establishing Akiiki Consulting, Jessica managed funding for women’s and minority rights at the Sigrid Rausing Trust, one of the largest private human rights funders in Europe. She is also the former coordinator of Amanitare (the African Partnership for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women and Girls). Jessica serves as an advisor to a range of human rights initiatives. She is currently on the boards of the oldest international women’s fund, Mama Cash and the Nairobi-based rapid-response women's rights fund Urgent Action Fund-Africa. She is an advisor to the journal Development. She is also a founding member of the African Feminist Forum.
Jessica has published on issues of women's rights to bodily integrity and autonomy, sexual rights, gender and development and peacebuilding. She has also published a volume of poetry.
Jessica holds an MSc (Distinction) in Gender and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a BA (Magna Cum Laude) in Anthropology from Smith College and an International Baccalaureate diploma from the United World College of the American West.
In her work, Jessica draws on regional and transnational experience. She has lived in Sierra Leone, the Fiji Islands, the United Kingdom and the USA, and has conducted project work across East, West and Southern Africa.