Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell holds a PhD on the economics of wellbeing (2003) from the University of Amsterdam and another on environmental economics (2003) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, Nueva York). She is a tenured scientist at the Institute of Economic Analysis (IAE-CSIC), affiliated professor of the Barcelona School of Economics (BSE), and research affiliated at IZA and MOVE. Ada is Deputy Director for Academic Programs and Director of the Economics of Public Policy Master program at the BSE, as well as director of the World Wellbeing Panel. Her main research interests are on the analysis of wellbeing through subjective questions.

Sabina Alkire is the Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and Associate Professor of Development Studies in the Oxford Department of International Development at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis, welfare economics, the capability approach, the measurement of freedoms and human development. Previously, she worked at the George Washington University, Harvard University, the Human Security Commission, and the World Bank. She has a DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford.

Lorenzo Fioramonti is Full Professor of Political Economy at the University of Pretoria (South Africa), where he founded the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation. He is also a Member of Parliament in Italy, where he was national Minister of Education, University and Research (2018-2019) and made Italy the first country in the world to introduce mandatory climate change and sustainability education in all schools. His most recent books are Wellbeing Economy: Success in a World Without Growth (MacMillan 2017) and The World After GDP: Economics, Politics and International Relations in the Post-Growth Era (Polity 2017), which have been featured – among others - by Bloomberg and the Financial Times. His opinion pieces have been published, among others, by The New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Harvard Business Review, TruthOut, Die Presse, The Conversation, Das Parlament, Der Freitag, The Mail & Guardian, Business Day and www.opendemocracy.net.

Ben Stephens is an economist with ten years of experience at consultancies and think tanks focused on defining, measuring, and achieving metrics for development in social projects. Ben currently works at Instiglio, a non-profit advisory firm, where he manages projects focused on better defining and incentivizing critical development results to better use scarce donor and government funds in the pursuit of results. This includes working on the design and negotiation of Namibia's first Social Impact Bond focused on early childhood development, designing results-based community health strategies in Kenya and Zambia, and managing the institutionalization of results-based financing across the Millennium Challenger Corporation's multi-billion development portfolio in a 4-year initiative.    

Previously, Ben was a Knox Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he completed a master's of public policy, and a Perron Scholar at the University of Western Australia, where he gained a dual degree in Economics and Arts, with First Class Honours in the former. 

Francis Akena Adyanga (PhD.) is a Senior Lecturer at Kabale University Uganda in the Faculty of Education. Francis obtained his PhD. from the University of Toronto in 2014. In 2015, he taught at the University of Toronto and was later a postdoctoral fellow at the College of Education, University of South Africa (UNISA) Pretoria in 2016/2017. He is currently (2020/2022) collaborating with Prof. Norma Romm from UNISA College of Education in a joint research project focused on Social and Environmental Justice and Organic Social Movement Protests in northern Uganda. He is also actively involved with the Society for the Advancement of Science in Africa (SASA).

Karla Jessen Williamson (PhD.) is an assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan. Formerly, she was the executive director of the Arctic Institute of North America (AINA), the first woman and first Inuk to hold the position. Jessen Williamson is a researcher on cross-culturalism, multiculturalism, antiracism, and Aboriginal epistemology. Karla has published a number of articles and book chapters, and she has edited the Journal of Indigenous Studies. She is a board member of Inuit/Etude/Studies, and a member of several national organizations such as the Advisory Committee for the Minister of Natural Resources, and previously Canada’s International Polar Year National Committee and the Canadian Council on Learning.

Dr Ewelina U Ochab is a programme lawyer with the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute, human rights advocate and author. Dr Ochab works on the topic of genocide, with specific focus on the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities around the world, with main projects including the Daesh genocide in Syria and Iraq, Boko Haram atrocities in West Africa, the situation of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and of the Uyghurs in China. In 2021, together with Baroness Kennedy QC and Emily Foale, Dr Ochab evacuated close to 500 Afghans (103 women at risk and their family members). Dr Ochab authored the initiative and proposal to establish the UN International Day Commemorating Victims and Survivors of Religious Persecution. The initiative has led to the establishment of the UN International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief on August 22.

Lord David Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, KCSG, KCMCO, has been a Member of the House of Commons for 18 years until 1997, when he was appointed a Life Peer. He began his career as a teacher and, in 1972, he was elected to Liverpool City Council as Britain’s youngest City Councillor.

He is known for his human rights work: in 1987 he co-founded the children's charity Jubilee Action (which changed its name to Chance for Childhood in 2014), and he serves as chair, patron or trustee of a number of voluntary organisations, including CRISIS, the International Young Leaders Network, Karen Aid, and the Christian Heritage Centre. In 1997, he was appointed Professor of Citizenship at Liverpool John Moores University. In 2017 he was appointed as a Visiting Professor at Liverpool Hope University. He is a Knight Commander of Merit of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (2003) and a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (2008), both Roman Catholic orders of chivalry. In 2016 he was given the St. Thomas More Religious Freedom Award for his commitment to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 2017 he was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit by Janos Ader, President of Hungary.

Lord Alton is the author of several books, including What Kind of Country? (Marshall Pickering 1987), Whose choice anyway? (Marshall Pickering 1988), Faith in Britain (Hodder & Stoughton 1991), Life After Death (Christian Democrat Press 1997), Citizen Virtues (Harper Collins 1999), Euthanasia: Getting To The Heart of The Matter with Martin Foley (2005), Abortion: Getting To The Heart of The Matter with Martin Foley (2005), Building Bridges – Is there hope for North Korea? with Rob Chidley (2013). He also wrote many reports on human rights in countries such as North Korea, Burma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Brazil, Sudan/Darfur, Tibet and Rwanda.

See more at: https://www.davidalton.net/?s=Genocide

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC practises predominantly in criminal law, undertaking leading work of all kinds. She also undertakes judicial review, public inquiries and sex discrimination work. She has acted in many of the prominent cases of the last decade including the Brighton Bombing Trial, Guildford Four Appeal, the bombing of the Israeli Embassy, the abduction of Baby Abbie Humphries and a number of key domestic violence cases. She is currently acting in cases connected to the recent wave of terrorism.

A frequent broadcaster and journalist on law and women's rights, her many media contributions and appearances include creating the BBC television series Blind Justice in 1987, presenting the BBC's Heart of the Matter throughout 1987, Raw Deal on Medical Negligence in 1989, The Trial of Lady Chatterley's Loverin 1990, and Time Gentlemen, Please for BBC Scotland - which won The Television Programme Award category of the 1994 Industrial Journalism Awards.

She was awarded a life peerage in 1997. She was created a member of the French Académie Universelle des Cultures by the French government, a Cavalier di Gran Croce (Italy's highest honour) by the President of Italy in 2004, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2005 and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in 2005.

Her publications include the widely acclaimed Eve Was Framed: Women and British Justice (Vintage, 1993) which has been fully updated and has just been reissued in paperback, March 2005. Her new book Just Law: The Changing Face of Justice and Why It Matters to Us All (Chatto & Windus, 2004) has just been published in paperback, March 2005.

Aarif Abraham is a barrister, writer and speaker specialising in public international law, international criminal law and human rights. He advises policy makers, NGOs and international organisations widely on constitutional issues, peacebuilding, and international crimes. Aarif has held leadership positions - as a director, trustee, lawyer, or investigator - in private practice, international courts/tribunals, and NGOs/IOs. He is the founder of Accountability Unit, an NGO specialising in conflict-resolution and justice issues. His current practice is at Garden Court North Chambers. He originally qualified, and practised as a Solicitor, at Slaughter and May. Aarif continues to act as a Consultant to several United Nations bodies.

Sareta Ashraph is a barrister specialized in international criminal law, with expertise in the gendered commission and impact of international crimes. She is deeply involved in case-building work for crimes committed in Syria and Iraq and has worked on United Nations’ investigations in ISIL crimes against the Yazidis in northern Iraq, which culminated in findings that ISIL committed genocide and crimes against humanity. In 2018, she wrote the Global Justice Center’s landmark report “Beyond Killing: Gender, Genocide and Obligations under International Law”. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.

An expert in corporate reporting, Richard’s research and teaching interests span financial accounting and sustainability reporting, with a particular interest in standard-setting. He also has a broad interest in sustainable business, and he leads Oxford Saïd’s initiatives in this area.

Richard serves as Chair of the Expert Panel of Accounting for Sustainability (A4S, a Prince of Wales charity). Previous positions include membership of the Corporate Reporting Council (which sets UK accounting standards) and of the Financial Reporting Advisory Board (FRAB, which advises HM Treasury on government financial reporting). He served as Research Fellow at the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), Chair of the Audit Committee of Cambridge University Press, and Director of the Cambridge MBA and of the Oxford MBA. Richard has an undergraduate degree from Oxford and graduate degrees from Cambridge, and he qualified as a chartered management accountant while working for AstraZeneca. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and at INSEAD.

Richard has won teaching awards at both Oxford and Cambridge, including 'Most Acclaimed Lecturer in the Social Sciences', awarded by Oxford University Student Union.

Igbuan Okaisabor is a Civil Engineer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Construction Kaiser Limited (CKL), a 29-year-old Building and Civil Engineering Construction Company operating in Nigeria, CKL has since grown to be one of the leading indigenous construction companies, with an extensive track record of outstanding work in heavy engineering, residential and commercial development, with projects in different geo-political zones of the Country.Igbuan has constantly spoken about the importance of construction industry standards across the Country

Igbuan serves on notable boards and organizations. He is the president of the Nigerian-German Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Governing Council of the Federation of Construction Industry [FOCI]. He is also a member of the Governing Council Lagos State Employability Support Project [an initiative of LASG and UNDP]. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers (2019), and a COREN registered Engineer. Igbuan is an alumnus of The University of Benin and The Harvard Business School, Boston Massachusetts. Igbuan is passionate about Nigeria and her youths; and promotes a shared-value strategy where a business seeks success while creating social impact. He founded Kaiser Foundation for Social Development (KFSD), a youth empowerment and development platform.

Sanjeev Goyal is a pioneer and leading international scholar in the study of social and economic networks. His book, `Connections: an introduction to the economics of networks`, was published in 2007 by Princeton University Press. A Chinese translation appeared in 2010.

Sanjeev Goyal is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Econometric Society. He was the Founding Director of the Cambridge-INET Institute (2012-2014) and Chair of the Economics Faculty (2014-2018).

Marisa received a PhD in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick, U.K, and a master’s in international Relations from FLACSO, Argentina. Before joining UNCTAD, Marisa worked at the Mission of Argentina in Geneva, dealing with WTO issues and at the House of Commons in London working with for the then Labour Shadow Minister on Development. She has taught at University level both in the England and Argentina. Marisa has a number of publications on international trade issues, including the latest “Creative Economy Outlook (UNCTAD, 2019) and training material for UNCTAD’s Commercial Diplomacy and Trade Negotiations Branch and UNCTAD’s Virtual Institute as well as a number of parliamentary reports on trade and development issues.

Samson Kambalu is an artist and writer working in a variety of media, including site-specific installation, video, performance and literature. His work is autobiographical and approaches art as an arena for critical thought and sovereign activities. Born in Malawi Kambalu’s work fuses aspects of the Nyau gift-giving culture of the Chewa, the anti-reification theories of the Situationist movement and the Protestant tradition of inquiry, criticism and dissent. He has developed a praxis around Cinema which includes site specific installations, lectures and intervention on social networking sites online. His PhD at Chelsea (UAL) looked at how the problematic on the gift and non-linear time animates various aspects of his work and its contexts.

Kambalu’s writing has included “The Museum and the Individual’, for the Tate, looking at aspects of the gift economy in Meschac Gaba’s Museum of Contemporary African Art. His first book, an autobiographical novel of his childhood upbringing in Africa, The Jive Talker, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2008 and went on a performative reading tour around Europe. Kambalu has been featured in major exhibitions and projects worldwide, including the Dakar Biennale (2014, 2016), Tokyo International Art Festival (2009), and the Liverpool Biennial (2004, 2016). Kambalu has won research fellowships with Yale University and the Smithsonian Institution, and was included in All the World’s Futures, Venice Biennale 2015, curated by Okwui Enwezor. His recent solo exhibition is at the newly inaugurated Zeitz Mocaa, Cape Town (2017).

Sara Creta is an award-winning photojournalist and documentary filmmaker, with extensive experience investigating human rights abuses. Over the past years, she documented on-the-ground conditions in forced migration situation, human rights violation, crisis management and cultures in transition.

Sara’s recent bodies of work in Libya include “Libya, No Escape from Hell” a 60 minutes-long documentary for ARTE filmed in Libya on the entire detention system and the role of the militias; a joint-investigation by Lighthouse Reports, Der Spiegel, ARD, Liberation and Il Domani on the role played by Frontex air surveillance assets in the intercepting and returning asylum-seekers to Libya and “The Ship That Stopped 7,000 Migrants, and Smuggled 700,000 Cigarettes” for The New York Times, an investigation on an Italian warship that was deployed to Tripoli to help combat people-smugglers.

In 2019, she was in Sudan to cover the uprising for the ARTE, a Franco-German free-to-air television network and she co-authored a 22 minutes documentary on Women’s stories from the frontline of Sudan’s revolution.

In the past, she has worked with the German Television ZDF on a documentary about Libya and EU policies; on a documentary series on migration in the Mediterranean for NRK, television in Norway; filmed at the border between Morocco and Spain with RAI, Italian television.

Alexandros Ntolgkov holds a Mater’s degree from the University of Nicosia in Blockchain and Digital Currency. He serves as community lead at Litentry - a decentralised cross-chain identity aggregator which enables linking user identities across multiple networks.

Michelle is a globally recognized Investor, Blockchain and Digital transformation professional with career background in banking, government policy and technology spanning over 16 years. She is also a senior Government Advisor working on policy and regulatory structures with several governments and supports international groups including the African Union (55 African member states), United Nations, International Chambers of Commerce, Government of Bermuda (Board -GFAB), World Trade Organization, World Union of Small, Medium Enterprises and the B20/ G20 group. Michelle is well known for her work in Digital Transformation and Blockchain space and she has been recognized as a Top 10 Woman in Blockchain in Africa and one of Top 40 Global Fintech4Good Fellows linked with the UN. Michelle now runs and owns only impact and research driven black female-led FinTech/Blockchain Investment groups in the UK (Global Policy House- GPH). Michelle invested in GPH creating in the UK the only black female owned ESG driven group focused on sustainable outcomes leveraging Blockchain and Data for emerging and commonwealth markets, driving innovative and sustainable solutions with a particular focus on impacting positively under-represented groups including women, youth, black and other ethnic minority groups.

Dr Novák obtained his Master's degree in Law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Pécs in 2014. For three years, he worked as a trainee lawyer in civil law and economics, and from the beginning of 2017 he worked as a legal advisor at the University of Pécs's Law Department. He is the leader of the University of Pécs’s Official Esport Team and in 2019, he started his studies at the Doctoral School of the Faculty of Law of the University of Pécs. His research area is within information society and the relationship between Esports and Law.

Jan Zielonka is Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. His previous appointments included posts at the University of Warsaw, Leiden and the European University Institute in Florence. Zielonka has produced eighteen books including Counter-revolution. Liberal Europe in Retreat (Oxford University Press, 2018, awarded the 2019 UACES prize for the best book on Europe and translated into several languages). Zielonka regularly contributes articles to Die Zeit, NewStatesman, Social Europe, Open Democracy, Il Fatto Quotidiano, L’Espresso, NRC Handelsblad, Diário de Notícias and Rzeczpospolita.

Julia Ebner is a DPhil Candidate at Oxford University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, where she leads projects on online radicalisation, disinformation and hate speech. She wrote the bestselling books Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists and The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism. Based on her research, Julia has acted as a consultant for the UN, NATO, and the World Bank. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, Washington Post and Süddeutsche.

Ulrike Guérot is Professor at the Institute of Political Science and Sociology and holds the Chair for European Politics at the CERC (Centre Ernst Robert Curtius) of the University of Bonn. She is the founder of the European Democracy Lab, Berlin, and was previously head of the Department for European Policy and the Study of Democracy at Danube University Krems, Austria. She worked in various European think-tanks as well as at universities in Paris, Brussels, London, Washington, and Berlin. In 2019, she was awarded the Paul Watzlawick Ring of Honor as well as the Salzburg Award for Research on the Future. In 2020, she published her most recent book Nichts wird so bleiben wie es war (Molden).

Jozef Vaessen (PhD) is Methods Advisor at the World Bank. He has been working in evaluation research since 1998, first as an academic evaluation consultant and later on as a lead evaluator. He has conducted and led evaluations for multilateral and bilateral development organizations in a range of policy fields such as agriculture, environment, science, education, health and others.

Since 2016 he has been leading the Methods Advisory Function at the Independent Evaluation Group. Jozef has authored several internationally peer-reviewed publications, including three books. His most recent publication is titled Evaluation of International Development Interventions: An Overview of Approaches and Methods.

Dr Anna Neistat is the Legal Director of The Docket initiative at the Foundation. Anya has been involved in international human rights work for more than two decades and has conducted over 60 investigations in conflict areas around the world. Before joining CFJ, she was Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, responsible for leading the organization’s global research agenda and crisis response. Previously, she worked as Associate Director for Program and Emergencies at Human Rights Watch. She has authored numerous human rights reports and opinion pieces and regularly contributes to legal and human rights debates in academic and policy institutions. Her work has been profiled in the media and in the award-winning documentary, E-team. She is Chair of the Board at Crisis Action, an international organization working with global civil society to protect civilians from armed conflict. She is an Honorary Professor at La Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo and regularly teaches at Columbia, Science Po, and other universities. She holds an LL.M degree from Harvard Law School, a J.D. and Ph.D. in law, and an M.S. in history and philology.

Devanik Saha is a PhD researcher and a Research Officer at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK. His doctoral research focuses on men, masculinities and their roles in reproductive health. In addition to his PhD, he has significant experience in international development working on different issues such as COVID-19, gender, nutrition, public health, and informality. He has worked as a research consultant for Duke NUS Medical Centre, UNICEF India, World Bank, Tetra Tech International, BBC Media Action, etc. in different capacities such as managing surveys, implementing projects, leading qualitative analyses, etc. Additionally, he is a prolific writer and has extensively on development and politics in India for digital media outlets such as IndiaSpend, Newslaundry, The Wire, Indian Express, and others.

Douglas Emeott provides technical support and project management to Instiglio’s projects. Formerly, Douglas was an Analyst at the World Bank, while other previous experiences include USAID contractor management in Washington D.C. and project management with Habitat for Humanity project management in Guatemala. Douglas holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations & International Economics from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) and is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

Dr. Volker Maiwald graduated from RWTH Aachen in 2009 as an aerospace engineer. He initially worked as a freelancer, before he joined the German Aerospace Center (DLR) at the Institute of Space Systems in 2010 as system analyst, mission analyst and systems engineer for space projects and contributed to several missions’ early phases of development. He received his doctorate about low-thrust and gravity-assist trajectory optimization at the University of Bremen in 2018.

Besides low-thrust trajectory and system optimization research topics of his are design processes for space missions and human space exploration technologies. As part of this, sustainability in the context of human space exploration and how sustainable development on Earth can be supported by space technologies are current fields of studies for him. He is a member of the Space Habitats Committee of the International Astronautical Federation and editor for the CEAS Space Journal and since 2012 he is a lecturer at the University of Bremen. His acumen of over 70 publications includes articles, books and authorship of book chapters.

Nivedita Raju is a Researcher in SIPRI’s Armament and Disarmament research team. With a focus on space security, she also manages research and outreach in disarmament education. In addition, Nivedita is a mentor in the UN Space4Women program and Director of Legal Affairs at the non-profit Space Court Foundation, where she advances initiatives for gender minorities in the space sector. Previously she was a Research Fellow at Open Lunar Foundation, focusing on transparency and confidence-building measures for lunar security, and a contributing member of the McGill Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space (MILAMOS). Nivedita was also an Advisor for the non-profit Schools of Equality, which conducts gender-sensitization training in schools across India.

David Alexander is Professor of Risk and Disaster Reduction at University College London (UCL) and a visiting professor at the Universities of Bournemouth and Northumbria (UK), Coimbra (Portugal) and Lund (Sweden) and Research Fellow at the Global Risk Forum in Davos, Switzerland. From 2003-7 he was Scientific Director of the Advanced School of Civil Protection of the regional government of Lombardy. Alexander has authored many books including Natural Disasters (1993), Confronting Catastrophe (2000), Principles of Emergency Planning and Management (2002), Recovery from Disaster (with Ian Davis, 2015) and How to Write an Emergency Plan (2016). David Alexander is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier's International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, and was formerly Co-Editor of Disasters journal. He is Vice-President and Chairman of the Trustees of the Institute of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, which is the oldest learned society in the field of disaster reduction. In 2013 Alexander won the Distinguished Research Award of the International Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM).

Neha Yadav is a Commonwealth Scholar at IDS studying under the theme "strengthening resilience and response to crises”. Her PhD research seeks to understand the synergies and trade offs between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) aiming to achieve food security and improved nutrition, within the context of the natural disaster-prone Himalayan region in India. It aims to develop an alternate policy framework to support innovative food systems that are sustainable and resilient. Yadav’s D. Phil research explores the implications of a disaster event on livelihood and food security of the affected population, especially in the context of women’s health and child nutrition. The primary data was collected three years post-disaster to examine how factors like a decrease in food intake, reduced access to medical care and loss of assets and livelihood affect communities differently across caste, class and gender. It also documents the role of elitism and ‘power over’ during the rescue, relief, and rehabilitation process.

As Chief of Staff, Julia’s main responsibility is to support the leadership in the execution of Instiglio’s strategy. Julia also leads the organisation’s marketing strategies and contributes to projects. She formerly worked as a consultant, conducting research and analysis on the socioeconomic status, policies, and rights violations of ethnic minorities in Colombia, Peru and Central America. She also advised on the implementation of inclusive social development initiatives for local governments, foundations, and indigenous communities in Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador and Argentina. She holds a BA in Philosophy and International Relations from Boston University.

Muma is an award-winning creative-alchemist. Her background is banking, financial-tech, consultancy and social-impact. She is a CLORE fellow and redefines what it means to use one’s passions for the highest good. Muma believes in not limiting herself she thrives on creativity. She is CEO of Krypia an African Fintech providing financial services to SMEs in the informal sector. She also owns AAFS the first immersive investment art platform dedicated to increasing the value of African art for the savvy collector.

Muma most enjoys using her skills to empower women to take up space. She is an executive leader in Africa and UK, she continues to use her skills & influence in niche sectors such as mining and international development. She has advised at The Parliamentary Internet, Communications and Technology Forum on the imminent need for black women in positions of decision making to curb inequality in the tech sector. She is a speaker and also a board-member on two charities promoting the use of technology and business skills for disadvantaged women.

Before IDinsight, Frida was the Director of Programs at the Center for Health Solutions – Kenya and a consultant at McKinsey & Company’s Africa Delivery Hub; she served most recently as CEO and co-founder of Afyakit Technologies, a Kenya-based start-up that built and operates a health analytics platform for health managers and service providers. Afyakit Technologies was named by WHO as among the 30 top innovations with the highest potential for health impact in Africa. She previously served as a consultant for governments, NGOs, civil society and multilateral agencies across a multitude of sectors including health, human rights, gender, housing, youth employment, city design, and other areas. Frida is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering Life Innovation Fellowships and has published a book examining the Kenya Health System through the lens of tuberculosis case detection.

Ruba Al-Zu’bi served as Advisor to the President for Science Policy and Programme Development at the Royal Scientific Society, Jordan. Prior to that, she led the Scientific Research Department at Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation. Through that post, Ruba oversaw Shoman’s Scientific Research Support Fund, Arab Researchers Award, and the science-based Innovation programmes. Ruba was the first Policy Director at the Ministry of Environment, led several departments at the Development and Free Zones Commission, and served as the Chief Executive Officer of EDAMA Association for Energy, Water and Environment, the first Jordanian business association in the green technology sector. Al Zubi also led the Clean Technology Sector Development component at USAID Jordan’s Competitiveness Program which helped to enhance the private sector’s competitiveness, created jobs and increased exports in greentech clusters.

Since joining Chatham House in 2004, Glada Lahn has worked on a range of international resource-related projects which intersect with geopolitical, economic and development concerns. Her research areas have included petroleum sector governance, Asian foreign resource investment, access to energy in developing countries, sustainable transitions in oil and gas-exporting economies, Arctic extractives policies, the pricing and valuation of natural resources, and transboundary water relations in the Middle East and Asia. Glada has led influential research on energy policy in the Arab Gulf, energy access amongst displaced people globally in 2015, and how climate change and decarbonization affect the prospects and choices for developing country oil and gas producers. She is currently working on CASCADES, a multi-partner EU initiative to assess the transboundary risks of climate impacts and make recommendations for actions on resilience building.

Robert Stoner is the deputy director for science and technology at MITEI and founding director of the MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design. He is currently a member of the MIT Energy Council, the Science and Technology Committee of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and the Technical Advisory Board of the Center for the Study of Science, Technology, and Energy Policy. He is also a member of the Rockefeller Foundation-funded Global Commission to End Energy Poverty, and serves as its secretary. Stoner is the inventor of numerous computational and ultrafast optical measurement techniques, and has built and managed successful technology firms in the semiconductor, IT, and optics industries. His present research at MIT focuses on energy storage technology and policy, and the design and optimization of energy systems and business models in the developing world.

Omar Abu-Eid is the Energy, Environment and Climate Change Program Manager at the Delegation to the European Union to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Hestarted working for the Commission Delegation to Jordan in 2004, as the first Local agent programme assistant to the Development section. Abu-Eid was later assigned as Programme Manager to follow environment and energy with special focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency. He aids different development sectors supported by the EC, such as local development, tourism, water, education, social development, human rights and others.

Michael Thaler is a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University. He received a PhD in Business Economics from Harvard University in 2020. His research is in behavioral, experimental, and political economics; he studies the causes and consequences of biased beliefs and political polarization. In a series of papers, his work has shown how the behavioral bias of motivated reasoning leads to political polarization, excess supply of misinformation, and gender differences in overconfidence. It has also explored how political polarization has affected public health behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Verah Okeyo is an award-winning global health journalist with ten years of experience in mainstream media. She is currently a communications manager at Jhpiego, an international health organisation, Jhpiego. She is also a lecturer and media trainer who has worked with organisations such as the Thomson Reuters Foundation to train journalists across the continent on various elements of science and health journalism. Verah was the founding editor of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) desk at Nation Media Group, East and Central Africa’s most prominent media house, until moving to communications.

Verah holds a BA in Media Communication and Technology (Electronic option) with IT with a minor in Creative and Performing arts from Kenya’s Maseno University and an MSC in global media and communications from the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom. She tweets as @iamverahokeyo

Sina Odugbemi is a Public Speaker, Consultant, and company director based in London. He has spent the bulk of his career in international development working, first, for the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), and, until recently, the World Bank Group. His expertise is in the politics of implementation, and the role of communication processes and structures in the implementation of development programs and projects. He specializes in advising government officials around the world on the implementation of governance reforms and complex, high-risk investment projects, including building their capacity to do so via seminars and workshops.

Sina’s publications include a novel entitled The Chief’s Grand-daughter (Spectrum Books, 1986) and three co-edited volumes: With the Support of Multitudes: Using strategic communication to fight poverty through PRSPs (2005), Governance Reform under Real-World Conditions: Citizens, Stakeholders, and Voice (2008), and Accountability through Public Opinion: From Inertia to Public Action (2011).

Victor is a post Doctoral Research fellow in the Department of Economics at Nuffield College, Oxford. Victor completed his PhD at the Paris School of Economics in 2020. His main research interests are in development economics and applied microeconomics. He currently focuses on two main questions: What are the consequences of informality in developing countries? How new technologies reshape the way governments collect taxes? He addresses these questions using field experiments, survey experiments and administrative datasets.

Jeffrey Herbst currently serves as the President of the American Jewish University. A renowned political scientist, Dr. Herbst has written many influential publications about economic and political development across the globe with a particular focus on the African region. Before his current position, Herbst previously served as the president of Colgate University, CEO of Newseum, and president of academic affairs and professor of political science at Miami University.

Elias Papaioannou is the academic director of the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development and economics professor at London Business School, focusing on international finance, political economy, applied econometrics, growth, and development. His research has been recognized with a consolidator ERC grant in 2018, the inaugural 2013 European Investment Bank Young Economist Award, the 2005 European Economic Association’s Young Economist Award, and the Royal Economic Association’s Austin Robinson Memorial Prize, 2008. He is a research affiliate of the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Matthew Lange has been a professor at McGill University since 2004. His work focuses on state building, nationalism, ethnic violence, development, colonial legacies, emotions, and comparative-historical methods. He has authored many articles and chapter as well as some books including: Lineages of Despotism and Development: British Colonialism and State Power (Chicago, 2009), Educations in Ethnic Violence: Identity, Educational Bubbles, and Resource Mobilization (Cambridge, 2012), Comparative-Historical Methods (Sage, 2013), and Killing Others: A Natural History of Ethnic Violence (Cornell, 2017), and is a co-editor of States and Development: Historical Antecedents of Stagnation and Advance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) and The Oxford Handbook of the Transformations of the State (Oxford, 2015).

Olivia Ngou is the founder and Executive Director of Impact Santé Afrique an African based NGO. Prior launching ISA, she worked for 10 years for Malaria No More where she led the Cameroon and Africa programs helping to keep malaria high on the agenda and rally political, celebrities, private sector and community leaders around the cause. Olivia began her experience on malaria at the Special Envoy for Malaria at the United Nations; during that time she taught a public health course at the City University of New York: Health of the Wellness Project for undergraduate’s students at CITY College. She also worked with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control as a research assistant and was a fellow of the Harvard University Science of Eradication Malaria Leadership Course. She holds a master degree in Public Health.

Olivia has a great passion for public health & the fight against malaria and maternal and child health; she is striving to make her humble contribution to help create a world where no one dies from a mosquito bite. She is committed to ensuring communities are included in malaria and health programs as equal partners. She recently elaborated a guide on community issues, social rights and gender in malaria programs and tools for malaria civil society to increase participation in Global Fund mechanisms. She co-founded and established the first Global Network of Civil Society for Malaria Elimination (CS4ME) which she now coordinates with more than 300 members from 43 countries.

Agnes is a Technical Officer, at the Facilitated Product Introduction (FPI) Team which is part of the Regulation and Safety Unit under the Regulation and Prequalification Department, WHO-HQ, Geneva, Switzerland.

She was trained as a Pharmacist and holds a Master of Science (MSc) in Pharmaceutical Technology with more than 21 years of experience in regulation of medicines and medical devices including in vitro diagnostics. During the 21 years, she held different technical, advisory and leadership roles which allowed her to provide sound and relevant guidance/advice to regulators and regional harmonization initiatives globally. Agnes also has an extensive experience in medical devices regulation and regulatory harmonization initiatives for medical devices as she was previously the Manager for medical devices registration in Tanzania and the first Chair of the African Medical Devices Forum (AMDF). It was during that time when major milestones were recorded.