Her Excellency Madame Monica Chakwera is the wife of Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, the sixth President of the Republic of Malawi.

She was born on 30^th September, 1953 and raised in Mwazisi in Rumphi District, Northern Malawi. In a career spanning four decades, until her retirement in 2017, Madame Monica Chakwera was a Chartered Accountant and a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). She was also a qualified Social Worker with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work Degree from the University of the North, in South Africa. Prior to qualifying as a Chartered Accountant and as a Social Worker, Her Excellency Madame Chakwera pursued her Studies with the Malawi University of Business Administration (MUBAS), where she was awarded a Diploma in Business Studies. Madame Chakwera worked with several international development organisations such as the British Council, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Plan International, the Irish Embassy as well as the accounting firm, Deloitte.

For years, Her Excellency Madame Chakwera has been working on supporting the development of the village girl and street children, two causes she is passionate about. Her passion for the village girl is inspired by her own roots of upbringing in the village. She faced struggles in paying school fees for her secondary school education. Save the Children came to her rescue in the final years of secondary school to enable her to finish her studies. It is this experience that has made her an inspirational advocate for women empowerment and girl-child education, to promote positive social transformation and lifelong opportunities to education.