SPEAKERS

Since 2014 he has been working in Nigeria as CEO of the construction and infrastructure company AG Dangote, a partnership between the largest private African group Dangote and the Brazilian company Andrade Gutierrez.
Previously he was CEO and President of some major companies in Portugal, Algeria and Libya. Born in Mozambique with Portuguese nationality, he graduated in Civil Engineering from Instituto Superior de Engenharia in Lisbon.

Dr. Azhari Gasim Ahmed is Senior Economist at the Islamic Development Bank, where he works on the bank’s Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development, a dedicated poverty reduction fund. He studied at the University of Khartoum, graduating with Honors in Economics in 1982, and then earned his MSc in Management Sciences from Durham University (UK) and his PhD in Economics from the University of Leeds in 1990. Ahmed’s prior professional career has included university teaching and private banking. He was an economics professor at the University of Gezira in Sudan from 1990-95 and principal economist at the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank in Nairobi.

Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah is currently the Chief Executive Officer of The John A. Kufuor Foundation, founded by His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor, former President of the Republic of Ghana. For ten years (2005 – 2014), he worked for the United Nations, first, as UN Senior Governance Advisor in Tanzania and, secondly, as Senior Special Advisor to the United Nation Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). In both positions he worked closely with governance institutions, providing critical analysis and advice to governments and the UN Office.

Prior to working for the UN, he was Associate Executive Director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), an independent public policy think-tank, which he co-founded in 1998. A former university professor, he taught at Bennett College and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, both in the USA. Between 1994 and 1996, he was Fulbright Professor at the Legon Center for International Affairs, University of Ghana. He has authored four books, including his autobiography, My Ghanaian Odyssey, which was published in 2012. Prof. Agyeman-Duah studied at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, Ohio University and the University of Denver, USA.

Bronwyn Nielsen is one of Africa’s most experienced, respected and well-known broadcasters. With over 25 years’ experience in African broadcasting, Bronwyn is regularly called upon by the World Economic Forum to host live panel debates at their events throughout the world. During 2017 alone she has chaired debates and panel discussions at numerous World Economic Forum events including: Switzerland (Davos), South Africa (Cape Town and Durban), UAE (Dubai), China (Dalian), India (New Delhi). She is also called upon by leading business organisations and institutes, such as Milken Institute, African Development Bank and ABN Group (which includes CNBC Africa and Forbes Africa) to moderate key sessions at their global events, which are often broadcast live. Most recently Bronwyn was an Executive Director at Africa Business News (ABN) and was Editor-in-chief at CNBC Africa for four years (2013 – 2017), with responsibility for setting the content agenda for all companies within the ABN Group and driving the group’s strategic growth opportunities across the African continent. Bronwyn has a Bachelors of Commerce from the University of Cape Town and recently completed a Financial course for Senior Executives at Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Camila Marinho is one of the best known faces of tv journalism in the State of Bahia. A professional with 16 years of experience, she has worked for major television stations in Brazil. Since 2005, Camila is working for Bahia TV, an affiliate of Globo, the main Brazilian broadcast network. At Bahia TV Camila anchored for three years the news program with the largest rate. In July 2018 she received the title of Bahia Citizen, granted by the Legislative Assembly in recognition of her good services provided to the state through work as a journalist.

On 6 June 2018, Claus Reiner has taken up his functions as Country Director at IFAD, the International Fund for Agricultural Development – a specialized agency of the United Nations system. He leads the IFAD Country Office in Brasilia, which will also be IFAD’s South- South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) and Knowledge Centre.

Moreover, he continues to coordinate the thematic team on targeting in IFAD’s Latin America and the Caribbean Division, and acts as focal point on indigenous issues. Mr Reiner works at IFAD since 2007. He holds a Masters’ Degree in International Agricultural Development by the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. He did his Undergraduate Studies of Agricultural Sciences at the Technical University of Munich. Before joining IFAD, Mr Reiner worked as freelance consultant, with the specialisation of development economist and rural financeexpert, on project design and implementation support, mainly in Asia, Near East and North Africa, and Sub Saharan Africa. At IFAD, he has lastly been responsible for the Fund's programme in the Southern Cone of Latin America (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile). Previously, he was responsible for IFAD’s Mozambique and Angola portfolios, with which he also acquired his Portuguese language skills.

Daniel Balaban is Economist, MBA in Finance, Specialist in Public Budget and Master in International Relations. Since August 2011 he is the Director of the World Food Program Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil. Balaban acted for over ten years in the areas of finance and planning in business consulting firms and foundations of welfare facilities. In 1994 he became Finance Analyst of the Brazil’s Ministry of Finance, having served as Economic Adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury and National Coordinator for Economic Studies of the Secretariat of National Treasury. In 2003 he served as Special Adviser to the Secretary of the Economic and Social Development of the Brazil’s Presidency of the Republic.

Graduated in International Relations, pursuing a Master's degree in International Business from Must University.

MBA in Strategic Management by FIA / USP, MBA Management for Excellence in SENAI in partnership with FNQ, Specialization in Public Management with Public Administration and Specialization in Public Management by Fortium.

She has 20 years of professional experience in the area of international cooperation project management, ranging from negotiation, planning, monitoring and evaluation to execution of internal and external resources, such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and other financing banks, as well as international agencies of the United Nations System, UNDP, UNESCO, PAHO, ILO. She has been working in the National Department of SENAI for 9 years and in the last year I have been working with international cooperation projects in Africa, Latin America and Europe.

Fabya Reis, 43, was born in Itamaraju, Bahia, and was Head of the Secretary for the Promotion of Racial Equality (Sepromi). During the period, she was also Executive Coordinator of Policies for Traditional Communities. Previously, she worked for the Women's Policy Secretariat.

Daughter of Maria do Carmo Batista dos Reis and José Pedro dos Santos Filho, Fabya Reis began her public life at the age of seventeen in the Landless Workers' Movement (MST). She worked during 13 years in the organization of projects, advice and mobilizations, in addition to articulation with universities and other social movements. In the academic setting she has a lot of experience. She graduated in management, focusing on the dynamics of the third sector. In 2008, she completed her master's degree in Sociology from the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG). At the same institution, she became a PhD in Social Sciences in 2012.

In public management, she also worked for the Secretariat of Social Development and Combating Poverty, between 2010 and 2012. In the new role she takes on the challenge of working to consolidate the rights of individuals and traditional ethnic groups, as well as strengthening the policies of against racial discrimination and religious intolerance.

Native of Cape Verde, Georgina Benrós de Mello was graduated in Economics from the Higher Institute of Economics and Management of the Technical University of Lisbon. Later, she did postgraduate studies with CENFA (Cape Verde) and FUNDAP (Brazil), and with a Postgraduate School in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh (USA). She is a Master in Heritage, Tourism and Development, by the Department of Social and Human Sciences, University of Cape Verde, and has defended this "Virtual Museum of Landscapes of Cape Verde - For an alternative model of tourism". Before being chosen for the Director General, she is the Coordinator of the National Unit for the Implementation of the Integrated Framework (Enhanced Integrated Framework) of the World Trade Organization in Cape Verde. In recent years, it has focused on the development, investment, private sector, and business to value chains.

Gilbert F. Houngbo became the sixth President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on 1 April 2017. Born and raised in rural Togo, Houngbo has spent more than 30 years working to improve the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable people, with extensive experience in political affairs, international development, diplomacy and financial management. Prior to his appointment as IFAD President, Houngbo was the Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) where he led field operations in more than 100 countries and managed its bilateral and multilateral partnerships. He served as Prime Minister of the Republic of Togo from 2008 to 2012, where he introduced economic reforms and enhanced the rule of law and civil liberties. From 1996 to 2008, he undertook a number of roles at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) including Chief of Staff and Assistant Secretary-General, Africa Regional Director, where he led poverty alleviation programmes in 45 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to this, he spent a decade in the private sector, including at Price Waterhouse, Canada, where he worked in Audit and Financial Advisory Services. Houngbo has a Matrîse en gestion des entreprises from the University of Lomé, Togo, and a Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures Spécialisées in Specialised Accounting from the University of Québec, Canada. He is a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants.

Helder da Costa is General Secretary of the g7+ Secretariat, an association of 20 fragile and post-conflict affected countries, ranging from the Pacific, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, based in Dili, Timor-Leste. He served as Senior Advisor on Aid Effectiveness to the Ministry of Finance, Timor-Leste (2008-2014) and represented the g7+ in the Steering Committee of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation in 2012-2014.

Mr. Da Costa earned his PhD in Trade Policy at the University of Adelaide, Australia, in 2001. His professional career in management and academic fields included holding senior posts with both the Asia New Zealand Foundation and the
Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) based in Wellington, New Zealand. He has also consulted for various international development agencies including UNDP, UN, ADB, World Bank, AusAID and ACIAR Australia.

Higino Francisco de Marrule has been Minister of Agriculture and Food Security since December 14, 2017. He is an agronomist and agro-economist by profession. During his professional career he held various positions and functions as a member of the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1999, he supervised the training and implementation of the Agricultural Survey Work (TIA) and Census. He coordinated the Emergency Committee on Agriculture in the field of floods in 2000. From 2002 to 2006, he coordinated the Policy Analysis Department and served as Senior Advisor on Agrarian Policies, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Michigan State University.

Entrepreneur, Architect and Futurist, a graduate of the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley, co-founder of Elephant City, an initiative that reinvents people's way of working, living and entertaining through partnerships with real estate owners, retrofit, design and operation of coworkings, colivings and innovation hubs in unique spaces, ranging from maritime terminals to galleries, from football stadiums to riverside homes. Today in Brazil Elephant has 8 units and 7 more in design and also already has an office in Portugal. Igor is also Co-Founder of Wave Accelerator, the largest startup accelerator in the Northeast. In Salvador, Elephant operates the Salvador HUB space.

Founder and current President of Brazil Africa Institute, he holds a PhD in Education from the Federal University of Ceará and Postdoctoral studies from the University of Brasilia (UNB), with the object of research on the integration of the African continent. He is a visiting professor of important Brazilian and African Universities and he is a Senior International Associate of African, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center - CALACs of Jindal Global University (India). Prof. João Bosco is author of books and publications related to the relations between the various international actors, focusing on the South South Cooperation. He act as an international consultant of Brazilian and foreign organizations and as a columnist and commentator of important media in Brazil.

João do Rosário is a journalist of one of the mainly broadcast networks in Portugal, the RTP. He has 24 years of professional experience. Since 2013 João do Rosário is an anchor in the international channels of RTP, including RTP Africa, broadcasted to all Portuguese speaking countries. The journalist also worked as news producer for UN Radio in New York and for Deutsche Welle agency in Bonn, Germany.

Since 2008, Jonathan has been Managing Director, Headmaster, and Founder of Abaarso School. From 2004 – 2008, Jonathan founded and led Flagg Street Capital, a private investment firm that managed $170 million of assets. Prior to Flagg Street, he worked as an Analyst at SAB Capital and at Blavin and Company. Jonathan’s career started as a Research Associate within the Taxable Bond Division at Fidelity Investments. In addition to his full-time responsibilities, Jonathan sat on the Board of Directors of Pomeroy IT Solutions, a publicly traded IT company generating $500 million of annual sales. Jonathan’s board responsibilities included acting as a member of the Audit Committee, the Advisory Committee, and the Special Committee (strategic alternatives) of Pomeroy. Jonathan graduated from Emory University, with a B.A. Summa Cum Laude in Economics and was a member of Phi Beta Kap.

Since October 2015, Mr. Jorge Chediek has been the Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, leading United Nations system-wide promotion and coordination of South-South cooperation for development. In March 2016, Mr. Chediek was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General as his Envoy on South-South Cooperation. Prior to this, Mr. Chediek served as the UN Resident Coordinator/United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Brazil (2010-2015).

Preceding his United Nations career, which began in 1990, Mr. Chediek worked at the Department of Legislative Analysis of the Argentinean Congress and as an independent consultant assisting in the design of financial investment systems in Argentina. Born in 1960, he holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service (honors) from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor of Science (“Licenciado”) in Political Science from Catholic University in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

José Gomes Temporão is a doctor graduated from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, a specialist in Public Health Planning, a Master's degree in Public Health and a Doctor in Social Medicine. Throughout his career, he held the positions of Titular Professor of the National School of Public Health (ENSP) of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation; National Secretary of Planning of the National Institute of Medical Assistance of Social Security (INAMPS); Deputy Secretary of Health of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Director-President of the Vital Brazil Institute; Deputy Secretary of Health of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro; Executive Director of the Foundation for Scientific and Technological Development of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation; Director of the National Cancer Institute (INCA); National Secretary of Health Care of the Ministry of Health. He was Minister of Health between 2007 and 2010 and, between 2011 and 2016, he held the position of Executive Director of the South American Institute of Government in Health (ISAGS), permanent body of the Health Council of the UNASUR. He is a full member of the National Academy of Medicine. He has published and organized several scientific books and articles, advising national and international bodies such as UNICEF, PAHO and WHO.

José Graziano da Silva has worked on food security, rural development, and agriculture issues for over 30 years, most notably as the architect of Brazil’s Zero Hunger (Fome Zero) programme and now as the Director-General of FAO.

Graziano da Silva led the team that designed the Zero Hunger programme, and, in 2003, was charged by then-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to implement the programme as Special Minister of Food Security and the Fight against Hunger.

He headed the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean from 2006 to 2011. Elected Director-General of FAO, he took up office on 1 January 2012. After his first term from 1 January 2012 to 31 July 2015, Graziano da Silva was re-elected for a second 4 year-term (1 August 2015 to 31 July 2019) with the votes of 177 countries during FAO's 39th Conference.

At the helm of FAO, Graziano da Silva has sharpened the Organization’s strategic focus; and is strengthening its field presence. He is also working to instill a best value-for-money culture. At the international level, he is working to build consensus on food security-related issues.

He has also encouraged closer cooperation with development partners, supports South-South cooperation, and has increased collaboration with civil society and private sector entities, including farmer organizations and cooperatives for smallholder producers.

Graziano da Silva holds a Bachelor's Degree in Agronomy and a Master's Degree in Rural Economics and Sociology from the University of São Paulo (USP), and a Ph.D. in Economic Sciences from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). He also has post-Doctorate Degrees in Latin American Studies (University College of London) and Environmental Studies (University of California, Santa Cruz).

A Brazilian and Italian by nationality, he is married to Paola Ligasacchi and has two children and four grandchildren.

- President of the Republic (2007 - 2012)
- Prime Minister, Minister of Defence (2006-2007)
- Senior Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (2002-2006)
- Member, High Level Board on Mediation, established by the UN Secretary-General (2017-2019);
- Advisor to the President of the UN General Assembly, 2017-2018;
- Commissioner, Global Commission on Drug Policy, Geneva, 2017;
- Chair, High Level Independent Panel on UN Peace Operations, appointed by the UN Secretary-General (November 2014 - 2015), UNHQ, NY;
- Co-Chair, Independent Commission on Multilateralism, (2014-2016), International Peace Institute, NY;
- Under-Secretary-General, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Integrated Peace Building Mission in Guinea-Bissau, (Jan 2013- June 2014);

Livio was born in Rome, on Oct 13 th 1960. He has a law degree from Universita’ di Roma La Sapienza, and worked as a journalist for almost ten years, covering in Middle East and Iraq, thenvshifted to international and domestic political and economic affairs. Livio joined the private sector in 1998 in Philip Morris, then he moved to Lottomatica, marketvleader in payment services, with the position of Vice President for Marketing and Communication. He returned to Philip Morris Italy as General Director in 2005, accountable for Sales Distribution. From 2007 until 2009, Livio was General Manager for Philip Morris in the Slovak Republic. From February 2009 up until March 2014, Livio has headed Corporate Affairs for Philip Morris for the European Union Region. And from 2014 to 2017 he lead the Corporate Affairs department as Vice President Corporate Affairs for Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and Duty Free, where he was also accountable for the business in Israel. Since March this year, he has been appointed Vice President for Global Partnerships and Cooperation, fully focusing on the transformation of the business with the new purpose of designing a smoke free future, replacing cigarettes with reduced risk products.

Mamadou Biteye is the Managing Director for the Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office. In this role, Biteye oversees the
Foundation’s work across Africa, which includes initiatives in youth employment, health, philanthropy, agriculture and food security, among others.

Biteye has a wealth of expertise in the development sector in Africa. An agricultural economist by training, he has over twenty five years’ experience in strategic leadership, program development and implementation, public policy analysis, advocacy and campaigning and community participatory development.

Some noteworthy achievements from his career include co-designing a micro-finance programme with Oxfam that is today improving the lives of over 700, 000 women in Mali and Senegal; Playing a key role in the development of policy processes in West Africa e.g. the ECOWAS’ Convention on Small Arms, and the ECOWAS’ regional mining directives.

Biteye holds a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from Ohio State University in the U.S, and a Master’s degree and Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from The Crimean Agricultural Institute in the Ukraine.

Designer and Social Manager, Márcia Ganem is a master in social management, defending the relationship between design and territorial development in her various areas of activity. She was a fashion adviser at the National Council on Cultural Policies of the Ministry of Culture from 2010 to 2014. As a designer, she holds the patent for the use of polyamide fiber in fashion in the United States, Brazil and European Countries. she parades her collections in Brazil and the United States. She founded and chaired the Institute of Design and Innovation from 2006 to 2016 and presently chairs the Casa de Castro Alves Institute, which promotes networking work with traditional communities and the various management spheres. Márcia Ganem published the book Dialogical Design: Creative Management, Innovation and Tradition and is Creative Manager of the Dialogical Design program, operated alongside the diverse traditional communities of Bahia.

Mr Mauricio Cysne is the Unitaid Director for External Relations. He has spent his career in advocacy, partnership building, resource mobilization and development. Prior to joining Unitaid, he served as UNAIDS Country Coordinator in Angola and Mozambique. He also worked as a Senior Governance Advisor for UNAIDS in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to that, he worked for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as a Fund Portfolio Manager for the Southern Africa region from 2005 to 2007. Mauricio worked for the Security Council of the UN in Geneva from 2000 to 2004, as a Legal Officer for the Security Council’s Compensation Commission.

Mr Cysne is a national of Brazil holding a Master of Arts in Law & Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, USA, a Graduate Diploma in International Relations from the Université de Genève, Switzerland, and a Bachelors of Law (LLB) from the University of Fortaleza, Brazil.

Mônica Monteiro has been working in the audiovisual market for more than 20 years. She has a post-graduate degree in Marketing and a Master's degree in Education. She is CEO of Grupo Cine, a company based in Brasilia, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Mozambique, specializing in educational video productions, television programs and is expanding it market to advertising and documentary films. Cine Group has 700 hours of image capture in 43 countries in the African continent, carries out about 15 projects between TV and film each year and presents a series of awards, including an International Emmy nomination.

Dr Nthabiseng Legoete is a medical practitioner who is passionate about improving access to primary healthcare. She has a vision that if realised, will make quality primary healthcare affordable for all global citizens in emerging markets. She founded Quali Health in May 2016. This organization provides affordable high quality healthcare services to the disenfranchised communities of South Africa. This network of clinics currently services 500 patients a day. She has spent the last 10 years navigating the private health sector, firstly as a medical advisor and product manager in the pharmaceutical division of Roche products and also as a partner in a medical practice that manages three emergency units in South Africa. Her main role was that of clinical director. Nthabiseng also has experience in the sub-acute environment and sees this as another opportunity to exploit in order to curb exhorbitant and often unnecessary private healthcare costs. Nthabiseng completed her MBA through the Gordon Institute of Business Science. Her research topic entitled, “Factors that influence the non- urgent use of emergency departments in the South African private healthcare sector" seeks to aid in the development of divergent strategies for these patients.

Oley Lucretia Clara Dibba-Wadda is Director of Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development of the African Development Bank Group. She leads the Bank's dialogue and investments in education, qualification and youth employment; health, nutrition and social protection. As a social development executive and strategic analyst with over 21 years of leadership and management experience, Ms. Dibba-Ledda led many extraordinary interventions, including mobilizing African decision-makers to focus on human capital and youth development in the continent.

Prior to joining AfDB, she was Executive Secretary of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) - a pan-African institution organized by the African Development Bank. Previously, she served as the Executive Director of the Forum for African Women Educators (FAWE), a pan-African organization to promote girls' education throughout sub-Saharan Africa. She also served as the Executive Director of Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) - an African organization on women, peace and security in Africa.

Omar is the Group Publisher and Managing Director of one of Africa’s leading media and communications groups, IC Publications. IC Publications is committed to serving the interests of Africa, and that is the ethos that drives all of the group's activities. The group publishes amongst other New African and African Business magazines. It also organises a number of Africa focused events. Omar's work and personal interests include media, development economics, leadership and education. He sits on the board of the Africa Media Initiative and Brand Africa. Omar studied Economics and Modern Languages at Durham University and has qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant.

Paulo Gomes is a global business leader, active environmentalist and a key political actor in Guinea Bissau. He has founded Paulo Gomes and Partners, a strategic advisory and investment firm focused on a high level limited set and sectors of clients with advice and tailored made solutions, a natural outcome of years advising governments and businesses on strategic investments as well as years on serving on boards ofvfirms such as AFIG, Asky Airlines and Ecobank. Founder of the South East Asia-Africa Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of the Advisory Board his business reach touched all continents and interests, Paulo is also a senior advisor to PIL Group.

CEO of Vale do Dendê, Paulo Rogério Nunes is the co-founder of the Instituto Midia Étnica, the largest Black media NGO in Brazil that operates since 2005. He also cofunded the news portal Correio Nagô, focused in diversity, human rights and inclusion. Mr. Nunes was also a Fulbright Humphrey Fellow (2011-2012) at the University of Maryland, where he studied Journalism and Digital Media during his Fulbright fellowship. In 2016, he created the first Black Startup accelerator in the Northeast of Brazil, Vale do Dendê, based in Salvador, Bahia, the most African city in Brazil. Paulo was one of the 11 young leaders invited by the ex-president Barack Obama to a privite meet in his last visit to Brazil and also spoke on the opening cerimony of the first Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago. He is also affiliate to the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University.

Simeon Ehui was appointed Director of the World Bank’s Food and Agriculture Global Practice in September 2017. He oversees the strategic direction and high-quality delivery of the Agriculture Global Practice work program with a focus on Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Since joining the World Bank in 2003, Dr. Ehui has held several assignments. He was manager of the Food and Agriculture Global Practice for Africa (2015-2017) and South Asia (2009-2015) while based in Pakistan. He also served as Lead Economist and Sector Leader for the Sustainable Development Network in Nigeria covering a variety of issues such as agriculture, social, environment, transport and energy.

Before joining the World Bank, Dr. Ehui worked for 15 years in the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). He managed multi-country agricultural research development programs in Africa and Asia for both the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

Dr. Ehui holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University and has published extensively in his field. He is an honorary fellow of the African Agricultural Economist Association, and a Distinguished Agricultural Alumnus of Purdue University.

A political scientist and astrophysicist at Harvard, she is a co-founder of the Mapa Educação (Education Map) and "Acredite" (Believe) and Federal Deputy Elected by São Paulo.

Yemi Akinbamijo is executive director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and an agricultural research for development expert. A Nigerian national, he has spent the past three decades of his career in Africa and Europe working in the domains of international agriculture, food and nutrition security, natural resource management, including crop-livestock integrated systems, market-oriented production systems, regional value chains, urban agriculture, land use management, sustainable agriculture and climate change adaptation. Akinbamijo is a strong analytical and strategic thinker. He is an active contributor to the global discourse on strategies for attaining a sustainable and inclusive agricultural transformation. He is also a consummate networker who is solidly plugged into an extensive community of stakeholders in the African agricultural and rural development landscape, including donors. Akinbamijo is widely published and is a former editor of the Bulletin of Animal Health and Production in Africa (peer-review journal) and lead author of the book "Advances in Crop-livestock integration in West African Cities".

Zinhle is the Project Manager of Community Industrialisation at Knowledge Pele. He has experience in power and infrastructure advisory in investment banking which included project structuring (including financial modelling), financial advisory services, debt and equity raising to corporate clients developing these projects in the power and infrastructure sector. He was part of the 10MW Upington PV plant that reached financial close during the first round of the REIPP Procurement Programme and commercial operation. He subsequently worked as a credit manager helped to oversee the bank’s credit exposure to renewable energy projects. After his time in banking he co-founded a start-up consulting firm that focused on assisting SMMEs in structuring their businesses to make them bankable to financiers. As an Enterprise Development Consultant, he was responsible for the planning, implementation and programming Knowledge Pele’s enterprise development programmes. As the current project manager for Knowledge Pele, he is responsible for the project
structuring (asset identification and acquisition), fund raising and establishment of KP’s community industrial infrastructure fund.