ARC Secretariat

Mr Ibrahima Cheikh Diong
United Nations Assistant Secretary General (ASG) and Director General of the African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group

Ibrahima has over 32 years of professional leadership and management experience in Africa, USA, Europe and Asia. He currently serves as United Nations Assistant Secretary General (UN-ASG) and Director General of the African Risk Capacity Group, where he leads the definition, development and implementation of the Group strategy. 

Ibrahima served previously as Chairman of the Dakar-based ACT Afrique Group, which he had founded in 2012. Prior, Ibrahima has held several senior positions globally and in Africa: Senior Africa Banker at BNP Paribas in London; Minister, Special Adviser and Ambassador at Large to the President of Senegal; Ambassador and Director General of International Cooperation of Senegal; Permanent Secretary of Energy of Senegal; Chairman of the Board of Senegal Airlines; Manager (SMEs) at the Africa Department of International Finance Corporation; Regional Coordinator for Africa for Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) at the World Bank.

Prior, he was Africa Director of the global management consulting firm, Booz-Allen and Hamilton, where he led the firm’s privatisation practice in Africa; senior consultant to many African and US governments, UN agencies, international foundations and NGOs, private companies, and think tanks; Manager of the Environment Unit of the Dakar-based Pan-African Agency for Research and Consulting. He was also the Manager of the Water Resources and Environment Dept. of the African Network for Integrated Development. While living in Taiwan, Ibrahima founded an investment intermediary firm, Africa Consulting in Taiwan (ACT), to advise Taiwanese investors interested in Africa.

Ibrahima's areas of expertise include: corporate and investment banking, blended finance,  transaction advisory, financial engineering, business re-engineering, change management, human capital development, BOOT and PPP design, merger and acquisition, project management, environmental policy management, M&E design, strategic communication, strategic planning, public speaking, SME development, IPP structuring, fundraising, water resource management and grant management. 

Ibrahima graduated from the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University in New York City with a Master of International Affairs (MIA) specialized in international finance and environmental policy management. He also holds a BSc. of Civil Eng. specialized in water res. mgmt from Nanjing Hohai University, People's Rep. of China. He also holds a diploma in PPP Design from the Institute of PPP in Washington, DC. 

Ibrahima is perfectly fluent in English, French, Mandarin Chinese and Wolof, and has a working knowledge of Portuguese combined with a vast experience in many countries.

Ms Eva Kavuma
Chief Operating Officer

Ms Eva Kavuma joined ARC in 2017 as the Chief Operating Officer, bringing to ARC over fifteen years of executive experience in stakeholder engagement and organizational optimization, as well as a profound understanding of Africa’s diverse investment environments. Ms Kavuma ensures that all of ARC Agency’s operational areas – Research and Development, Technical Support, Country Engagement, Contingency Planning, and Policy and Technical Advisory – are harmonized and efficiently working towards improving disaster risk financing in ARC Member States.

Before joining ARC, Ms Kavuma was the Director for East and Southern Africa of Africa Risk Consulting from 2015. Previous to this role, she held a variety of strategy-oriented positions in the MTN Group between 1998 and 2015. She worked as the General Manager of International Business Development in the MTN Group’s expansion strategy and in diverse leadership positions in HR International Operations, Corporate Affairs and Customer Experience. Eva led virtual teams to deliver on transformational strategies to achieve organizational effectiveness across multiple geographies, including emerging markets in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Her leadership of multidisciplinary teams at MTN Group across various programme areas resulted in consistent implementation of MTN Group policies and procedures across 22 countries in Africa and the Middle East, as well as the roll-out of transformative initiatives and activities across the MTN Group, including the Group’s Africa expansion strategy, Customer Experience, Shared Service Centre transformation, and the Employee Value Proposition.

Ms Kavuma has a Masters of International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. She speaks fluent English and Luganda, and she is proficient in French.

Research and Development

Mr Robert Kwame deGraft Agyarko
Lead Advisor, Outbreaks and Epidemics (O&E) 

Robert Agyarko joined ARC in 2016 from the World Health Organization’s Health Security and Emergencies Programme in the Africa Regional Office where he worked as the focal person for Strategic Planning, Resource Mobilization and Partnerships. Robert will manage the outbreaks and epidemics research and development program, including the critical outreach and relationship-building with ARC Member States and key partners.

He has 18 years of international experience working in development and public health, including management and coordination roles in national and international organisations. These include, in addition to the above: working for WHO on the Impact of HIV/AIDS on older persons (1999-2003, based in Geneva), coordinator in WHO AFRO’s Regional Malaria technical support team (2003-2007, based in Zimbabwe); portfolio manager for South Africa and Namibia (2007-2009, based in Geneva) at the Global Fund; West and Central Africa Malaria Advisor (2009-2010, based in Dakar) at UNICEF. He also has high-level advocacy experience with the African Leaders Malaria Alliance Secretariat (2010-2012). In 2015 he served as the Technical Advisor to the Incident Commander and Coordinator of the Ghana Public Health Emergency Operations Center.

Robert holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the University of Sussex, and undertook certificate courses in epidemiology and bio-statistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Policy & Technical Advisory Services

TBA

Country Engagement: West and Central Africa

Ms Linda Carole Tiemoko
Head of Government Services for West and Central Africa

Prior to joining ARC, Linda served as the Country Program Coordinator for Cote d’Ivoire at the Millennium Challenge Corporation Data Collaboratives for Local Impact. In this capacity, she led the strategic program implementation while promoting robust advocacy and execution to strengthen the effective use of data at all levels in the country. Previously, as a Senior Regional Manager, she supported the Agency for Medical Prevention to improve the overall program performance and secure new funding, while strengthening governance and regulatory compliance in five country offices in West Africa.

Linda graduated from the University of Maryland, USA, with a master’s degree in International Enterprise Management, and she holds a Master in English and Psycholinguistics from the University of Abidjan in Cote d’Ivoire. In addition, she holds a diploma in Knowledge Management, and a technical diploma in International Trade, and a diploma in Practices of International Trade. Linda is fluent in French and English, and she has a conversational level in Spanish.

Country Engagement: East and Southern Africa

Mr Koffi Konin
Head of Government Services for East and Southern Africa ad interim

 

Contingency Planning

Mr Papa Zoumana Diarra
Chief of Operational Planning

Papa Zoumana Diarra joined the African Risk Capacity project in June 2012 as the Contingency Planning and Operations Officer. He contributes to the development of contingency plans as well as monitoring and reporting for all African countries that are consider participating in the ARC risk pool.

Papa Zoumana joined WFP in January 2008 as a Food Security Nutrition Programme Officer at the Senegal Country Office where he implemented and monitored community-based food security and nutrition activities as well as relevant capacity building initiatives. Between 2010 and 2012, he served as the Head of Provincial Offices in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Prior to joining WFP, Papa Zoumana worked with various INGO’s, including CIRAD-Fôret, Vétérinaires Sans Frontières, Afrique Verte Sahel and Solidarités International in Afghanistan, France, Madagascar, Mali and Sudan.

A citizen of Mali and France, Papa Zoumana holds an Agricultural Engineer Diploma from La Universidad Marta Abreu de Las Villas, and a dual Masters Degree in Rural Development and in Food Policy from University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. Papa is a native speaker of Malinké, and is fluent in French, Spanish and English.

Legal

Mr Bright Mando
Senior Legal Counsel and Board Secretary

Bright Mando has more than 15 years’ experience in diverse areas of the national and international law.

He joined ARC in September 2018 from the African Union Legal Office where he has worked for 10 years handling and advising on topical legal portfolios for the Union including establishment of new AU structures and institutions; AU reform; treaty negotiations and practice; AU’s interaction with Member States, Regional Economic Communities and partners; environment and climate change; and institutional and administrative issues. Prior to joining the African Union Commission, he has worked in several government departments in Malawi focussing on the protection of the environment, anti-corruption and public procurement, law reform, good governance and development of policies and guidelines.

At ARC, Bright Mando manages ARC’s legal, advisory and secretarial services to the ARC Agency Governing Board.  

He holds an LLM in Rule of Law for Development (Loyola University Chicago, Rome Campus); LLM in Energy and Environment (Tulane University, New Orleans); a LLB (Honours) (University of Malawi); a Diploma for Peace and Security in Africa (Uppsala University, Sweden) as well as several post graduate certificates in International Law, Legislative Drafting, Intellectual Property for Developing Countries, and Military Law.

He was admitted to the Malawi Bar in January 2001.

Monitoring & Evaluation

TBA

Communications

Ms Michèle Diane Karambiri
Head of Communication Department

Michèle Diane KARAMBIRI is a specialist in communication, advocacy, partnership and social mobiliSation. She has 15 years' experience in communication for development and social change, including 8 in several United Nations Agencies, both nationally and internationally. She joined ARC as Head of communication in August 2023.

Prior to joining ARC, she worked for more than five years in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), where she held the position of international expert in data communication, particularly surveys and censuses. During this assignment, she was responsible for and carried out communication and awareness campaigns in connection with the General Population Census, the General Business Census and the Harmonized Household Living Conditions Survey. she highlighted statistical data to facilitate their understanding and use in development policies and programs.

At UNFPA, she was also in charge of community awareness-raising as part of programs to promote maternal, neonatal and child health, with a particular focus on empowering women and girls, as well as issues relating to the demographic dividend. She was a member of the United Nations Technology and Innovation Working Group in the Congo, where she proposed innovative solutions for the Covid response, for which she received international recognition in 2021. As an international consultant, Michèle also supported the implementation of the communications strategy for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a grant managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Prior to her international career, Michèle worked in her home country, Burkina Faso, in the public and community sectors, as well as for the United Nations. For two years, she coordinated the national volunteer program for development, and also served as communications manager for a joint UNDP and UNHABITAT program. Still at national level, Michèle worked for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for 4 years. Furthermore, she led and coordinated a dozen communication-related projects as an independent consultant with government, international organizations and civil society.

Overall, Michèle's professional career has involved working with thousands of young people, women and vulnerable people with special needs. She has contributed in strengthening the capacities of over 3,000 young people/women in several countries and in various fields, including communication, gender, life skills, sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, civic and voluntary engagement.

Michèle holds a Master's degree in Information and Communication Science from the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, and a Master's degree in Economics, Law and Management, specializing in International Affairs, from the Université Jean Moulin de Lyon 3, France.

Gender

Ms Christiana A. George
Head of Gender Department

Christiana Adokiye George has over 20 years of experience in the field of gender and development. Prior to her joining the African Risk Capacity, Christy worked as a Gender Specialist with the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) in a USAID funded project on Cotton Partnership in West and Central Africa. She had previously held leadership positions in the UN system as the UNDP Gender Practice Leader for West and Central Africa at the regional service Centre in Dakar, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility in Notore Chemicals, a Fertilizer Company located in her home country, Nigeria, as well as the Founder/President of Kate Bee Foundation, an NGO she founded to contribute to youth and women empowerment in the Niger Delta. With expertise in all fields of gender and development, Christiana led the elaboration of the regional plan of action for women, peace and security while she was working as Gender Advisor with UNOWA (Dakar), and also contributed to the setting up of the Mano River Women Peace Network (MAWOPNET) as the Programme Coordinator of Femmes Africa Solidarité (Geneva). In the field of Agriculture, she set up and coordinated the Community of Practice on gender, cotton and food security while working with IFDC (Ouagadougou), and also championed the integration of gender in the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP) while working as Gender expert with the Hub for Rural Development (Dakar). Christiana has also worked as Technical Officer for the Gender and Women’s Health Department of the World Health Organization in Geneva, and Gender and Civil Society Advisor with SNV in Rwanda and Tanzania. Christiana holds a PhD, in Gender and Development Studies from the University of South Africa (UNISA), a DES in Development studies from the Graduate Institute of Development Studies, Geneva, a Master of Philosophy in Translation studies (French-English) from the University of Port-Harcourt where she was also engaged as a lecturer for over 8 years. She speaks fluent English and French.

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