Claudine Munari

Claudine Munari Mabondzo (born 1954) is a Congolese politician. She was Director of the Cabinet of President Pascal Lissouba from 1992 to 1997. Although Munari fled into exile when Lissouba was ousted, she later returned to politics in Congo-Brazzaville; she was a Deputy in the National Assembly from 2002 to 2009 and was also the Second Secretary of the National Assembly from 2007 to 2009. From 2009 to 2015, she served in the government as Minister of Trade.

Munari was born in Pointe-Noire, Congo-Brazzaville's second city and main port. She obtained a degree in econometrics and worked at Citroën, an automobile manufacturer in France, from 1976 to 1981. Subsequently she returned to Congo and was the Administrative and Financial Director of CIATA, a French consultancy firm, from 1982 to 1991.

Munari met Pascal Lissouba at the 1991 Sovereign National Conference, and soon afterward Lissouba appointed her to a leading position in his newly created political party, the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS), as Assistant for Finance and Material. After Lissouba won the August 1992 presidential election, he appointed her as Director of the Cabinet of the President. In that post, Munari held the rank of Minister. She additionally became the Mayor of Mouyondzi in 1996.

An advocate for women, Munari promoted the cause of increasing women's participation in the decision-making of society, and she founded the Femme 2000 association, a non-governmental organization working for improvement of the socioeconomic status of women, on 24 March 1993.

Munari remained in her post as Director of the President's Cabinet for five years. When Lissouba was ousted at the end of the June–October 1997 civil war, Munari—like Lissouba—went into exile, living in France. She was included in the Patriotic Front for Dialogue and National Reconciliation (FPDRN), a moderate exile group created in France in October 2000; the group favored peace and reconciliation, choosing not to challenge the legitimacy of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who had toppled Lissouba. Munari returned to Congo-Brazzaville as part of a FPDRN delegation to participate in the March–April 2001 inclusive national dialogue.

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