Until December 2020, Dzingai Mutumbuka served as a member of the Governing Board for UNESCO's Paris-based International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) as a representative of the African Region. For ten years, he served as the Chair of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), a network that brings together all African Education Ministers and representatives of donors supporting the development of education in Africa.
Previously, Mutumbuka held various senior management positions in the education sector at the World Bank from 1990-2007. Before joining the World Bank, he had significant political appointments in Zimbabwe, including as an elected member of parliament. He was the first Minister of Education and Culture at Zimbabwe’s Independence in 1980 and, during his long tenure from 1980 to 1989, developed one of the best education systems in Africa.
He participated in the struggle for Zimbabwe’s Independence, rising through the ranks to the leadership of ZANU-PF. Against the odds, he organized a vibrant education for over 12 000 Zimbabwean youth who were too young to join the armed fighters. Before joining the freedom struggle, he lectured in chemistry at the University of Dublin in Ireland and the University of Zambia in Lusaka. He had a doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.
Currently, Mutumbuka sits on many boards dealing with education, including Results for Development, Teach for All, and Educate! Big Win Philanthropy, Vitol Foundation, and the Advisory Council of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program, whose main objective is to support newly appointed Ministers of Finance and Planning, Education, Health, Youth, and Gender from the Global South so that they can become transformative leaders and help their countries to benefit from the demographic dividend. He is also chair of the RISE Advisory Board.