Tina Maria Thiart
Director, HGG NPO Sustainability Solutions PTY (Ltd)
Tina Thiart is the director of HGG NPO Sustainability Solutions PTY (Ltd) a small Social Enterprise that works with Independent Funds, business start-up and Non-Profit Organisations to achieve sustainability.
HGG NPO Sustainability Solutions is part of the HGG Group, a dynamic group of skilled and experienced finial, business, marketing and Development specialist, with eight divisions that support small business, Trust and the NPO sector.
She has been working with Community Foundation and Women’s funds in Africa to strengthen their outreach and jointly they have prepared sustainability strategies. As part of her work as the International Network of Women’s Funds, she developed entrepreneurial training for income generating project to launch small business. From 2006-2010 she was the Executive Director of the International Network of Women’s Funds (INWF) and was pivotal in establishing the secretariat and setting up the structures for the organization. She played an important role in strengthen the membership base and encouraged more regional collaborations in the Global South.
Tina Thiart was one of the Founding Members of WINGS (Worldwide Initiative for Grantmaking support organisations) and the coordinator of Grant.net and a founder Member of Southern Africa Community Grantmakers Leadership Forum (SACGLF), two philanthropic networks in South Africa and Worldwide.
Tina advocate for women’s rights and is the Chairperson of Women’sNet and a Trustee of 1000 Women Trust mobilizing resources to support small women’s organisations. As part of Women’sNet she has been instrumental to develop training programs for girls on responsible use of social media and internet security. The team has also developed a Movement building toolkit for rural women, encouraging the use of ICT’s to advance their mission. As part of our support to Women start-up business we have amended the New Venture Trainings program to ensure the right support business leaders.
Tina Thiart, with 10 years teaching experience and 30 years in NPO Sector is passionate about capacity building of the NPO sector and has founded the Southern Africa Fundraising Leadership Academy and has develop various skills development programs to empower NPO’s to Sustainability. Tina developed training modules on the Funding Environment, ABCD of Fundraising, and Sustainability for NPO and Using the BEE Scorecard to leverage funding.
Tina holds a BA (Ed) degree from the Nelson Mandela University, has also completed a higher diploma in computer studies, and has certification in fundraising, marketing, and project management.
Richard Odenda Lumumba
Founder and Co-ordinator, Kenya Land Alliance
Odenda Lumumba is a land rights activist and a founder Co-ordinator of the Kenya Land Alliance, a Policy, Land Laws and Institutional Reforms Advocacy Network.
He is candidate for PhD in Land and Agrarian Studies, holds a Masters of Philosophy in same field from the University of the Western Cape. He has co-authored book chapters on Land and Sustainable Development in Africa and The Global Land Grab: Beyond the Hype.
Dr. Steve Ouma Akoth
Vice Chair, Judiciary’s National Steering Committee On the Implementation of the AJS Policy
Dr. Steve Ouma Akoth is a Kenyan scholar, advisor and activist in the field of human rights and social anthropology with over 18 years working in diverse international, regional and national fora.
He is a former ACLS scholar. He grew up in Korogocho slums of Eastern Nairobi and was educated at Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya and The University of the Western Cape South Africa where he obtained his PH.D. He was the Executive Director of Pamoja Trust (www.pamojatrust.org) between 2010 and 2019 and currently serves as faculty member at the Institute of Social Transformation at the Tangaza University College and Adjunct lecturer at the Department of Applied economic at the Kenyatta University. His areas of ongoing research touch on culture and the constitution, Multiple Justice Systems, and minoritarian urban modernity.
His current research project is in collaboration with Thomas Asher, a Colombia University based Scholar. The project focuses on Mobility in Southern Urbanism. This work we explore how our cities and neighborhoods are fashioned in ways that do not readily accommodate this constant movement, not least because we do not know adequately how to read this churn of people and goods. To understand this, they pose the following questions: Why is our sociological imagination so impoverished? What might we gain if we were to become fluent in reading mobility and how might this reshape both our understanding of urban life and how we design for those informal spaces that increasingly make up our cities?
Dr. Akoth is currently the Vice Chair of the Judiciary’s National Steering Committee On the Implementation of the Alternative Justice Systems (AJS) Policy.
Mohammed Awal Alhassan
Country Chairperson, GUSO
A self-motivated, dynamic, affable and inspiring young man and has contributed enormously to the living conditions of most people in the Northern Sector of the Country.
His current teaching and research areas are Adolescent and Reproductive health, health promotion, Health and Safety management and Health policy implementation. In addition to leading research and peer reviewed publications on reproductive health, Nana has presented at several conferences and engaged in policy discussions on reproductive health. He is currently a member of the International Aids Society and the International Association for Impact Assessment. As a starter, He has established and grown NORSAAC which has become one of the credible and leading organizations in Ghana. He is a product of many Universities within and outside Ghana. They include University of Ghana, Legon, University for Development, St. Francis Xavier University and University of Applied Sciences-Dusseldorf, Germany. His experience in working with partners both national and international is enormous; he has varied experience working with private sector, public sector and the civil sector in the field of development at macro, meso and micro levels. He has a comprehensive understanding of development work and have conducted training for all caliber of people across the country. He has built all types of reports from community to international and have been commended severally by partners for my quality of work. He has been involved in number of social accountability training and developing pedagogical tools for both formal and informal sectors.
He’s current roles in NORSAAC as the Executive Director and also a Coordinator of a CSO platform in Northern region has given him extra responsibilities of ensuring collaboration and networking among CSO organizations to promote children’s access to quality education, women’s access to productive resources and women’s participation in decision making through civil society platforms and networks. He has done this through management of partnership and collaboration. These networks and experiences are quite important for any future challenging job in Ghana and beyond. He has experience working with Ministries and Departments and able to support linkages with other decentralized agencies for effective development. He has been invited by organizations such as DANIDA (CISU) and Global Affairs Canada for high level presentation on different topics.
Nana Nimo Appiah-Agyekum (PhD)
Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Administration and Health Services Management, UGBS
Nana Nimo Appiah-Agyekum (PhD) is a senior lecturer in the Department of Public Administration and Health Services Management.
His current teaching and research areas are Adolescent and Reproductive health, health promotion, Health and Safety management and Health policy implementation. In addition to leading research and peer reviewed publications on reproductive health, Nana has presented at several conferences and engaged in policy discussions on reproductive health. He is currently a member of the International Aids Society and the International Association for Impact Assessment.
Josephine Nakakande
Executive Director, Eco-Agric Uganda
Josephine Nakakande is the Executive Director of Environmental Conservation and Agricultural Enhancement Uganda (Eco-Agric Uganda) and one of the four founders.
She is a Common Wealth Scholarship Alumni, African Food Security Ambassador 2018, Ford Foundation Fellow 2019, World Literacy Foundation Ambassador 2020 and a Member UWEAL Uganda.
Josephine, born 14th May 1974 in Hoima district to a teacher, went to Duhaga Boys Primary School, Duhaga Secondary School and then St. Edward S.S. Bukuumi for her HSC. She attended Bukalasa Agricultural College for a certificate and diploma in veterinary. She worked as a free lancer veterinarian in Hoima District before she pursued her Bachelors’ studies in Agriculture from Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi. She was awarded a common wealth scholarship and pursued a post graduate diploma in biodiversity wild life Ecosystems Health from the University of Edinburgh plus a Masters in International Human Resource Management from Rome Business School. Latter in 2018, she attained a Doctorate in Business Administration majoring in Organizational management from the University of South Creek U.S.A
Josephine has served for more than 20 years and with her passion for community Development, she has been at the fore front of supporting women improve their livelihoods through improved agriculture production, skills empowerment, education to mention but a few.
Currently running Eco-Agric Uganda an NGO established in 2007 and registered in 2010. It aims at sustainably improving livelihoods of the critically vulnerable absolutely poor people (women, youth and children) in Uganda.
Abdirahman Zeila
Environmental Specialist (Consultant), World Bank
Abdirahman Zeila, a Kenyan national, is a soil scientist with eighteen years' experience conducting adaptive research on smallholder farming systems in eastern and southern Africa.
His Ph.D. research focused on impact of climate change on soil quality in Kenya’s central highlands. Currently working as an Environmental Specialist (Consultant) with the World Bank, he supports the Bank’s growing portfolio in Somalia with incorporating environmental risk management into project designs. He was a lead author of the Somalia Country Environmental Analysis (CEA), completed in 2020, which characterizes the natural resource assets of the country. Abdirahman is currently leading climate risk assessment in a joint effort involving Somalia’s government and its development partners.
Obo Effanga
Resident Electoral Commissioner, INEC, River State, Nigeria
Obo Effanga is the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Rivers State, Nigeria, in which capacity he conducted the last general election in that state.
Until his appointment by the country’s president as an electoral umpire in 2017, Effanga, a journalist, lawyer and human rights activist was Governance Programmes Manager at ActionAid Nigeria.
Tijani Hamza
Oxfam Country Director, Ghana
Ahmed Hamza Tijani, Oxfam Country Director in Ghana since April 2017 has over 20 years’ social development leadership experiences across different themes like natural resource governance, social policy, education, political governance and fiscal policy.
Until he joined Oxfam as Country Director in April 2017, he had previously worked with ActionAid in Ghana (1997-2001) and Oxfam IBIS (2001 to 2017) during which period he was also Country Director in Sierra Leone and Ghana. Tijani was part of the team that led the transition to one Oxfam in Ghana in partnership with Oxfam America, Oxfam GB and Oxfam Denmark.
He has an M. A in Leading Innovation and Change from the York University, UK, Masters (course work only) in Democracy, Governance and Law from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, with a BA Honors in Law and sociology from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. Tijani is a Ford Foundation Fellow on African NGO leadership. He writes on organizational development, organizational leadership, philanthropy and civil society in Africa.
Godfrey Ochieng Okumu
Program Officer, Tostan International
Godfrey is a social change advocate/activist with over 19 years of experience in community-led interventions, movement building, human rights advocacy and management of social change projects in Africa.
In his professional life, Godfrey has supported and nurtured grassroots groups and communities on human rights advocacy, campaigning and networking/social movements. He is an alumni AVAC HIV Prevention advocate and also an HIV-Cure Academy Fellow. He previously worked for NIGEE, where his roles were to spearhead campaigns on ending child marriage and FGM/C which also included championing for girl’s access to quality education. He also previously worked for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a Field Coordinator for a Youth Intervention, where he was part of the team that adapted the eminently known Adolescents HIV/AIDS Evidence-Based Families Matter! and Healthy Choices I&II programs in Kenya. As part of his international assignment, he also worked for Actionaid International Zambia as a National Youth Inspirator where he supported the establishment of a National Youth Coordinating Team with decentralized structures in the rural communities to enhance rollout of youth social change campaigns in Zambia. In 2018, he was appointed to be a member of the International Planning Team for the GNB Global meeting 2018 under Girls Not Brides. Currently, he is a Global Member to the Girls Not Brides Members Advisory Committee.
At Tostan, Godfrey is part of the Program/Tostan Training Center team and he is supporting in trainings, pedagogy and conception, building partnerships, monitoring and evaluating of training modules. He is also the focal person for the Tostan’s Training and Replication pathway, where he is supporting Tostan’s two pilot initiatives in Nigeria namely ‘Strengthening Community Institutional Building in the Nigeria For Women Project (NFWP) Planning Grant’ funded by Gates Foundation (Focusing on Women Empowerment) and ‘Uniting Nigerian Communities to End Violence Against Women and Girls’ funded by Ford Foundation which plans to build the capacity of networks of religious leaders, both Muslim and Christian, and of CSOs in Nigeria who works with disadvantaged, mostly rural communities that are affected by problems related to gender equality and VAWG
Aniley Berhanu Sisay
Dean, School of Pedagogical and Behavioral Sciences, Arba Minch University Ethiopia
Aniley Berhanu Sisay is the Dean of the School of Pedagogical and Behavioral Sciences at Arba Minch University Ethiopia.
He gained his bachelor of education degree from Jimma University in major Physics and minor Mathematics in 2008. He gained a Masters of Art degree is in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning from Addis Ababa University in 2013.
For three successive years, he was worked as a Physics teacher in Selamber Preparatory school. Following his graduate study, he served in different organization. For instance, from 2013 to 2014 he worked as school principal in Selamber preparatory school. In 2014 he worked as a non-formal education expert in Gamo Gofa Zone education department. He has one and half year experience as an integrated functional adult education expert in southern nation, nationalities and people regional state. Since March 01, 2017 he has been a lecturer at Arba Minch University in the department of Adult Education and Community Development. In his university career, he worked as a Higher Diploma program coordinator for three years.
Abiy Menkir Gizaw
Assistant Professor, Adult Education and Community Development, Bahir Dar University
Abiy Menkir Gizaw is a faculty member, an Assistant Professor in Adult Education and Community Development (AECD) Department, and a PhD candidate at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia.
He has academic background in Sociology and Social Anthropology; Linguistics; Adult Education; and Lifelong Learning policy and management (Erasmus Mundus Scholarship). He had an internship experience in UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany. Being a coordinator of the Learning City Project, he led the AECD team and worked extensively to contribute to Bahir Dar City receiving a UNESCO award on learning cities (2015), making Bahir Dar a member of the Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC) in collaboration with the City Administration (2016). He has conducted several researches, presented on different national and international conferences, published articles, and have been engaged in different research and development projects. Some of his research interest areas include: lifelong learning, crafts learning, adult literacy, family literacy and learning, early childhood education and care, indigenous education and livelihood diversification, migration, etc. among others.
David Barnard
Development and Philanthropy Specialist, @AfricanNGOs
David Barnard has more than 25 years’ executive and senior management experience in initiating and leading development organisations and programmes across Africa, with specific expertise in civil society strengthening, advocacy, governance, ICT4D, and philanthropy, and is well-versed in fundraising, strategic communication, and stakeholder management.
He holds an Honours degree (cum laude) in Development Administration from Stellenbosch University and an Executive Diploma in Project Management from the University of the Witwatersrand. He attended management training at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom and was the first South African ever to be selected by the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at City University of New York to join their annual three-month International Fellowship Program.
From 1992-2000, David managed the Programme for Development Research (Prodder) at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) where he compiled and published various directories, databases and newsletters which profiled the work of NGOs, donor agencies, government initiatives, etc. involved in development and social change work in Southern Africa. At the time, the annual Prodder Directory was the most comprehensive publication of its kind in Africa.
After that, he acted as Executive Director of the Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT) from 2000-2013. During this period, SANGONeT evolved from an Internet Service Provider for NGOs in Southern Africa to an organisation providing various ICT, online information and capacity-building services to the NGO sector. Amongst other things, he introduced various new services in support of the NGO sector such as the NGO Pulse Portal (www.ngopulse.org), weekly NGO Pulse e-newsletter, annual SANGONeT “ICTs for Civil Society” Conference, Thetha: The Southern African ICT Discussion Forum, NGO CEO Circle, and the “State of ICTs in the South African NGO Sector” research project.
He moved to TechSoup in July 2013 to become its Vice-President: Africa, and until his departure at the end of 2016 was responsible for the expansion of its partner network and growth in the uptake of its services across Africa.
David currently acts as a consultant to various NGOs and foundations. He also serves on the Africa Policy Advisory Board of the ONE Campaign, the Board of Africa Universities Fund Inc and as a Play Your Part Ambassador for Brand South Africa, and served in various other governance roles in the past. He is a frequent speaker and panellist at local and international development conferences, and has produced, edited and contributed to multiple print and online publications covering a range of NGO, funding and development topics.
In his spare time, he is an extreme ultra-marathon athlete, dedicating his participation in international multi-stage desert races to organisations working in response to critical development issues in Africa. In September 2018 he became the first African to complete one of these races on all seven continents, and since 2010 have raised money and awareness for organisations such as the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, Greenpeace Africa, The END Fund, and ONE Campaign in Africa.
Isaac Minde
Associate Director, MSU-Alliance for African Partnership
Isaac Minde has worked on many aspects of agricultural development in Africa through his long-term assignments in Rwanda, Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
He has held positions in the Tanzanian government as district agricultural development officer, academic staff member in the University of Dar es Salaam and Sokoine University of Agriculture—where in the latter he served as chair of the agricultural economics department.
He has worked in the sub-regional agricultural research organization (ASARECA), and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)–IITA and later with ICRISAT as Principal Scientist and Head of the ICRISAT Diplomatic Mission in Zimbabwe. Through these engagements, Dr. Minde has the working knowledge of the regional political and economic blocs of COMESA, EAC and SADC in eastern and southern Africa. He then joined Michigan State University, where among others, has been the Africa Coordinator of the Modernizing Africa Food Systems Project, Deputy Chief of Party at different times for two Feed the Future projects (iAGRI and ASPIRES) in Tanzania. Dr. Minde is currently senior policy advisor in a Michigan State University project led project in Tanzania and Associate Director for MSU-Alliance for African Partnership with a key responsibility on monitoring, evaluation, learning and impact assessment. Dr. Minde is an honorary distinguished fellow of the African Association of Agricultural Economists.
Mzuri Issa Ali
Director, Tanzania Media Women’s Association, Zanzibar
After a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from Saint Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT), Mzuri completed her Auditing Course, Masters’and PhD in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Dar Es Salaam (UDSM).
Her career is all about promoting rights of marginalized groups.
She is a Director of Tanzania Media Women’s Association, Zanzibar (TAMWA ZNZ) the organization she virtually invented in 2007. She served as a TAMWA Board Member from 2004 – 2007 when she decided to work conventionally with the organization since it was only in operation in the Tanzania Mainland. Doing so, Mzuri was forced to leave her precious post at the Ministry of State, President Office in Zanzibar as Acting Director of the Directorate of Communication. Through her leadership, foregrounded by media advocacy, TAMWAZNZ managed to put into the public discussion the thorny issue of Gender Based Violence (GBV) of which due to the Islamic strong culture it was a taboo to talk about yet committed at alarming scale with impunity. This accompanied a range of policy and legal changes. She also managed to enroll more than 7,000 women especially from the rural areas in the Income Generating Activities ( IGAs) amid women mobility restrictions and supported a score of women to contest into the public leadership positions, an area which was reserved entirely for men. Dr Mzuri also champions collaboration with other Civil Society Organizations on the areas of good governance, human rights and gender equality.
Apart from her TAMWA, ZNZ responsibilities, among others, she also serves as the Chairperson of the Zanzibar Good Governance Network (ZANGG) and she served as the Chairperson of the Second CSOs meeting, 2017 organized by Zanzibar Non State Actors Support (ZANSASP). She also sits in a number of Board of Directors including East African Constitutional Development Centre locally known as Kituo cha Katiba cha Afrika Mashariki (KcK) based in Uganda, Union for Women Members of the House of Representatives locally known as Umoja wa Wakilishi Wanawake Zanzibar (UWAWAZA) and Zanzibar Institute for Research, Policy and Publication (ZIRPP). She is also a Vice Chairperson of the Tanzania CSO group in the fight against COVID 19 while chairing the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning committee. She was a beneficiary of NGOs Leadership Transition Fellowship Program (NLTFP) in U.S. organized by Association for Research on Non Profit Organizations and Voluntary Actions (ARNOVA) and Association for Research on Civil Society in Africa (AROCSA).