Ma is a senior private sector development officer at the African Development Bank (AfDB). She joined the Bank in 2018 as a young professional and worked on industrialisation, agriculture and governance. Before that, she was a consultant on trade, tourism and enterprise development at the World Bank.  

Ma holds a BA in Economics from Université Paris Dauphine, an MA in Economics from McGill University and a Postgraduate Certificate from the University of Bradford. Her interest lies in Africa’s industrialisation.

Mandipa is a governance researcher and development policy analyst. Currently, she is a PhD candidate at Leiden University and a visiting researcher at the University of Edinburgh. Her research is focused on urban governance in Africa and its developmental futures. 

Prior to pursuing her PhD, Mandipa taught at the University of Cape Town. She has previously worked with organisations such as the African Peer Review Mechanism, the Institute for Futures Research at Stellenbosch University, as well as the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town. These positions have been held in consultant and research capacities respectively. Her broader research interests are in civil-military relations, sustainable economic development, violence, development, transitional justice, and gender.

Gerald is the Founder and CEO of Future Africa Holdings, a company that focuses on building sustainable enterprises and unlocking real value on the African continent. Gerald is also the co-founder of Educate, which is an education access and improvement company. By partnering with schools at home and abroad, Educate’s core goal is to provide financial access through the issuing of loans within the education system. 

He is a male champion for women’s economic empowerment, boosting youth employment in sub-Saharan Africa, and a trailblazer in engaging leaders and governments to advance Africa’s Prosperity, through an organisation he founded called Future Africa Forum. He is a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader and is an alumni of the Global Shapers Community. He holds an Msc, Innovation, Leadership and Management from University of York.

Fernandes is the coordinator of the Centre for Social and Economic Research at the Faculty of Economics, Agostinho Neto University. His current research interests include (but is not limited to) capitalist transformation in Africa using the political settlement framework. He is soon to publish a book on Covid-19 in Angola and the need to rethink the role of the state. On the side Fernandes runs the non-profit project Oportunidades para Jovens em Angola.

Fatou Wurie is a social justice and public policy practitioner with over ten years’ national and international interdisciplinary experience in leading programs at the nexus of innovation, women’s rights and strategic change initiatives. She founded the Survivor Dream Project (SDP), a feminist local organization dedicated to providing psychosocial, education and entrepreneurial opportunities for women and girls’ survivors of Ebola and sexual violence in Sierra Leone. 

Fatou has worked in multilateral institutions for the last 5 years, including UNICEF to shape global gender, humanitarian and innovation programmes in over 20 countries. Currently, she is the Mo Ibrahim Leadership Fellow at the African Development Bank (AfDB). An Abshire-Inamori International Fellow from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a Global Moth Storyteller, Fatou holds a master’s in Public Policy from the University of Oxford and is a national of Sierra Leone.

Emilia is a Tanzanian Advocate and Registered Arbitrator. She is an advocate for the rule of law, sustainable development, and accountability of development finance. She has championed the environment, monitored democratic governance, led public-interest litigation, and amplified basic rights and duties in Africa.

Emilia is the founder of the African Hub for Accountability and Development Initiatives (AHADI), a non-profit, which advances accountability and innovative sustainable-development solutions and the principal of a boutique consulting practice, which installs and advises organisations seeking entry or impact in African markets.

Adeelah Kodabux is a Lecturer in International Relations at Middlesex University Mauritius. She is also a PhD candidate at Middlesex University. As part of her doctoral research, she is exploring the political and civil society dynamics within the configuration of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS).