Mr Mohamed Béavogui
Director-General and United Nations Assistant Secretary General (ASG)
Mr Mohamed Béavogui, an expert in Agricultural Finance, was elected as the first African General Manager of the African Risk Capacity in January 2015 during the 3rd annual Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In September 2015, he took over from interim Director-General, Dr. Richard Wilcox.
Mr Béavogui has over 25 years of international experience in development, and previous to his appointment with ARC was the Director of Partnerships and Resource Mobilization and Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
He joined IFAD in 2001 as Director of Programs for West and Central Africa and was responsible for delivering the lending and grant program, and managing a large portfolio of projects.
Prior to joining IFAD, he worked for 7 years with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in New York as a Senior Project Management Officer and subsequently as Regional Director for West and Central Africa. Earlier, he worked at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Burundi as Chief Technical Adviser and in Rome. Before this, Mr Béavogui worked in the African Regional Centre for Engineering Design and Manufacturing (ARCEDEM) in Nigeria, and for the Government of Guinea.
He is a member of several panels working on regional and global issues related to food security and rural development, and the recipient of several honours and awards.
Mr Béavogui holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from Saint Petersburg Polytechnic, a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from G.A Nasser University, and undertook Executive Management Training at Harvard Kennedy School.
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.
[toggle title="Research and Development" state="close"]
Ms Federica Carfagna
Director of Research and Development, a.i.
Ms Federica Carfagna has worked on the African Risk Capacity project as a vulnerability analyst since September 2009 and is now the manager of the ARC Secretariat’s Research and Development Team. A statistician by training, she is one of the main authors of the methodology by which the Africa RiskView software, the technical engine of ARC, estimates the impact of drought in terms of number of people affected and response costs.
Prior to joining ARC, she worked as statistician for WFP, UN Headquarters in New York, IFAD, and Rome City Hall. A native of Rome, Italy, Federica has a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Statistics and Economics from the University of Rome, “La Sapienza”, including a one-year exchange programme at the Cass Business School in London. Federica is a native Italian speaker, and she is fluent in English and French and conversational in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.
Agronomist and Software Developer
Peter Hoefsloot joined ARC at its inception in 2009 as an agronomist and software developer. Peter studied Agriculture and Meteorology at Wageningen University. He started working for FAO 25 years ago and developed software to estimate crop yields from water balance calculations. This software Agrometshell has become the standard solution for many applications in developing countries. AgrometShell has been extended to LEAP (for Ethiopia) and thereafter ARV for African Risk Capacity, the main differences being the use of satellite information. ARV development has been taken over by professional programmers, and Peter has taken up the role of senior advisor to the R&D team. Peter has given workshops and technical training to most countries South of the Sahara and has lived on the continent for 8 years.
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.
Outbreak & Epidemic Senior Public Health Officer, Outbreaks and Epidemics (O&E)
Henry Bosa joined ARC as a Senior Public Health Specialist for Outbreak & Epidemics in February 2017, bringing with him a 10 years’ experience in disease outbreak response and emerging infectious surveillance in various African countries. He started his career as a medical doctor in 2001, rising to a level of a medical superintendent of a general hospital in Uganda. Since 2007, Henry has been involved in the management of several disease outbreaks across Africa: the Ebola outbreak in Bundibugyo in Uganda (2007), the dengue fever outbreak in Mogadishu Somalia (2011), the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone (2014 and 2015), and the mysterious disease outbreak in Aweil, South Sudan (2016). Between 2011 and 2012, Henry acted as the Ministry of Health Clinical Lead during the viral haemorrhagic fever outbreaks in Uganda for both Ebola (2011, 2012) and Marburg (2012). In addition, Henry has extensively worked on different outbreaks including Yellow Fever, Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever, meningitis and human Rift Valley Fever.
In 2015, Henry worked as an Ebola Response Preparedness Officer with World Health Organization Country office in Ghana. Prior to joining ARC, Henry was an Epidemiology Research Fellow at Uganda Virus Research Institute, where his work focused mainly on arbovirus and emerging infectious diseases surveillance systems, outbreak response, and clinical epidemiology.
Henry is a member of the Scientific Panel of Experts on the Joint Mobile Emerging Disease Intervention Clinical Capacity (JMEDICC), a clinical trial on medical counter-measures to test candidate molecules in treatment of Ebola or Marburg. He holds a Masters of Science degree (Disease Control and Epidemiology Concentration) from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Makerere University in Uganda. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Control of Tropical Infectious Diseases from the University of Ancona, Italy.
Public Health and Country Liaison Officer, Outbreaks and Epidemics (O&E)
Dr Amadou Bah joined ARC in 2017 as a Public Health and Country Liaison Officer, bringing with him his experience in life sciences and international health management. Amadou will support the ARC Outbreak & Epidemic Insurance Programme by coordinating the R&D and in-country operational activities.
Previously, Amadou supported the development of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership’s “Action and Investment to defeat Malaria 2016-2030 (AIM) – for a malaria-free world”. His work focused on quantifying the public health and economic benefits of achieving the 2030 global malaria goals, as well as calculating the potential costs of malaria resurgence. In 2015, as part of the response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Amadou supported Guinea through a WHO/European Mobile Laboratory deployment, and provided laboratory diagnosis for Ebola virus disease.
Prior to joining ARC, Amadou worked as a Consultant for the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the WHO Global Malaria Programme. He also worked as Research Associate at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich.
A Guinean national, Amadou holds a PhD degree in Microbiology & Molecular Biology from Université de Sherbrooke and Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon. He is currently pursuing an MBA in International Health Management from the Swiss TPH. Amadou is a native French speaker and is fluent in English.
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[toggle title="Policy and Technical Advisory Services" state="close"]
Dr Jean-Claude Bidogeza
Lead Economist
Dr Jean-Claude Bidogeza joined ARC in 2018 as Lead Economist. He brings to the Agency over 15 years of experience in management, academia and research and development. Prior to ARC, he was a staff at the World Bank fully embedded in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources of Rwanda as Strategic Advisor to the Permanent Secretary (PS) and advising the Ministry on various operational, technical, and strategic issues related to the agriculture sector in Rwanda.
Dr Bidogeza also has considerable experience working with international organisations and across the African continent having worked with the World Vegetable Center, Africa, the ACP Secretariat, UNCTAD, FARA, UNDP, IFDC and a number of Universities. For work purpose, Jean-Claude has resided on a long term basis in Nairobi (Kenya), Accra (Ghana), Yaoundé (Cameroon) and Kigali (Rwanda), and the scope of his work has covered numerous countries in west, central, eastern and southern Africa regions and beyond.
He has written and published numerous papers, articles, policy briefs and technical reports on a number of multifaceted issues of agricultural development e.g. agricultural land productivity, theory and practice of production efficiency, urbanization, structural transformation of agriculture, economic analysis of agricultural value chains, modelling risks due to weather and price fluctuations, trade, commodities, nutrition and gender using, among others, mathematical programming, econometric and crop growth modelling techniques.
Jean-Claude holds a PhD in business economics from Wageningen University and Research Center (The Netherlands), an MSc in the management of physical land resources from Ghent University (Belgium), an agricultural engineering degree majoring in animal production from the University of Burundi. He has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Georgia (USA) where he worked on calibrating and applying Decision Support Systems for Agroecology Transfer (DSSAT), an assemblage of crop growth models tool, to simulate growth and yields estimates of a number of tropical crops under a variety of physical, chemical and weather conditions scenarios. He is a citizen of Burundi and Rwanda and is fluent in English and French.
Senior Technical Advisor
Mr Kipkorir Koskei joined African Risk Capacity Policy and Technical Services team as a Senior Technical Advisor in 2017 bringing extensive experience in financial risk management, underwriting and country risk assessment from a number of global financial institutions. Mr Koskei brings expertise in analysing, structuring and underwriting debt financing solutions and derivatives strategies for clients across a range of industries.
His experience spans corporate clients, government entities, sovereign wealth funds, supranationals and banks across various geographies having worked in London, Tokyo and Singapore, with experience gained from Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America.
Before joining ARC, Mr Koskei was an underwriting analyst at Bank of America with specific coverage of corporates and financial institutions in South Africa, Turkey, Russia and Central and Eastern Europe. Prior to this, he worked at Deutsche Bank developing risk strategy within the Transaction Banking division developing product and regional strategy to help drive growth within the business. Most notably his work in building the Africa strategy for Trade Finance diversified the business revenue streams as well as deepened its footprint in the region.
A citizen of Kenya and the UK, Kipkorir holds a Masters in Law (Finance Concentration) from University College London (UCL) and an undergraduate degree in Law from University of Warwick. He is fluent in Swahili and English.
Resource Mobilization Consultant
Ms Marie-Beatrice Brou joined ARC in February 2017 as a Resource Mobilization Consultant, particularly in charge of Donor Relations.
Marie-Beatrice is an experienced Legal Officer with expertise in International Law and Economics who sought a new challenge, especially in the field of development in Africa. Marie-Beatrice gained legal experience in the private and public sectors within the field of electricity, water supply and mass distribution. In her country of origin, she served in different Scientific and Technical Committees such as the African Water Association (AfWa). In 2009, she assisted the 15th International African Water Congress in Kampala, whose themes were related to climate change and energy issues, threats to the water and sanitation industry in Africa, partnership, and contractualization for better water and sanitation services in order to progress towards the Millennium Goals for Development. She is passionate about natural resource management, fisheries, and agriculture in Africa. Before joining ARC, Marie-Beatrice worked for 8 years as a Legal Officer in private companies in Cote d’Ivoire, then joined the UN Office of Legal Affairs in New York with a six-month internship agreement as a Researcher.
An Ivorian national, Marie-Beatrice holds a Master in International Economic Law from the University of Paris 1 La Sorbonne (France) and a Master’s Degree in International Law of the Sea from the University of Nantes (France). She is a native French-speaker and is also fluent in English.
Amanda joined the ARC Policy & Technical Services team as Partnerships Manager in April 2017.
Ms Archibong is an experienced Development Professional with expertise in International Trade & Regional Integration. Her experience also spans corporate functions in the areas of Strategic Management, Grant Management and Project Coordination.
Amanda’s experience has been gained in both the public and private sectors with the ECOWAS Commission, GIZ Support Programme to ECOWAS and Saana Consulting UK Ltd, a Development Consulting firm. She brings experience working on a range of donor projects including Danida, DFID, GIZ and the World Bank.
Most recently, Amanda worked with Saana Consulting UK Ltd coordinating its portfolio of donor-supported projects in West Africa as well as projects in the Pacific Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu.
Prior to this, she worked as consultant with the GIZ Support Programme to ECOWAS, providing Strategic Management support to its functioning. She also worked in the ECOWAS Commission where she provided support to the operationalization of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme, which is ECOWAS’ modality for operating a Free Trade Area.
A Nigerian national, Amanda has a BA in International Studies and Politics and an MSC in International Management from Greenwich and Loughborough Universities respectively.
Amanda is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers’ Community.
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[toggle title="Country Engagement: West and Central Africa" state="close"]
Ms Assia Sidibe
Head of Government Services for West and Central Africa
Assia Sidibe joined the ARC team in 2014 and currently serves as the Head of Government Services for West and Central Africa, in which she is responsible for managing the in-country processes for nations in those regions.
Prior to joining the ARC Agency, she was an Investment Officer at the French Development Agency in Johannesburg, where she worked on capacity building and municipal infrastructure financing. She has also worked for KPMG’s Audit and Advisory in Paris, where she was a consultant and an auditor in the insurance department.
A native of Mali, Assia holds a BSc in International Business from the École supérieure du commerce extérieur of Paris-La Defense and a Master’s Degree in Finance and Strategy from Sciences Po Paris. Assia is a native French speaker and is fluent in English.
Country Engagement Manager
Fatou Diagne is a consultant in Country Engagement and Government Services for the ARC for West Africa. Fatou started her career as an investment banker at Citigroup in London and Johannesburg before joining the ARC in 2012 as Regional Programme Officer. She also worked for Standard & Poor’s sovereigns ratings division in London and as an advisor in the Executive Office of SFR, one of France’s leading mobile operators.
Aside from the ARC, Fatou is active in venture capital investments, helping fund fast growing technology companies through The Real Economy Effect and Bootstrap Europe Venture Debt Fund, which she cofounded.
Fatou holds a BSc in Economics and Finance from the University of Calgary, and graduated from the HEC Business School in Paris where she majored in Finance. Fatou is fluent in French, English, Wolof and Spanish.
Country Engagement Manager
Aissata joined ARC as Country Engagement Manager to support the effort of the Country Engagement Division for West and Central Africa.
Before joining ARC, Aissata worked for FAO as Project Officer on Microfinance and Social protection (cash+) projects. Prior to that, Aissata was an underwriter at Liberty International Underwriters in Canada, working on Specialty Casualty Insurance in the Eastern Canadian Region. She worked as well for UNICEF Canada. A native from Mauritania, Aissata is the founder of the Junior Chamber of Commerce of Mauritania, a youth-led organization building capacity for young entrepreneurs and Startups.
Aissata holds a Bachelor degree of Business Administration in Finance and International Business from HEC Montreal. She is currently completing her Graduate thesis on Rural Finance, with focus on Productive Safety Nets and Microcredit at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University.
Country Engagement Manager
Prior to joining ARC, Mamadi worked as Project Manager at Cyleone, a company based in Montpellier, France, specialized in building environmental monitoring system for companies such as TOTAL, GRDF and SNCF. At Cyleone, Mamadi contributed on building new products and solutions for clients, was responsible for customer relations and project management. While attaining to that position, he also worked as a Teaching Officer in Reliability, Dependability and Safety Engineering at the Faculty of Science of the university of Montpellier.
A national from Guinea, Mamadi holds a Master of Science in the Field of Electronics, specialized in Embedded Systems from the University of Montpellier and a University degree of technology technical status in Network Engineering and Telecommunication from the University Institute of Technology of Béziers, France. Mamadi is a native French speaker and is fluent in English.
Country Engagement Manager
Meguy Massoudi joined ARC in July 2016 as a Junior Consultant to assist with logistics initially and evolved to take on the responsibility of a Junior Country Engagement Manager, namely for Togo.
Prior to ARC, Meguy pursued a Bachelor’s degree in economics at Monash University South Africa. She was also a youth volunteer and treasurer for Interact, a society that works under the Rotary Club, and a writer for YouthVillage online magazine.
Originally from the Republic of the Congo and The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Meguy is fluent in French and English and has a basic knowledge of Spanish.
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[toggle title="Country Engagement: East and Southern Africa" state="close"]
Ms Lucy Nyirenda
Acting Programme Coordinator and Head of Government Services for East and Southern Africa
Lucy Nyirenda joined the African Risk Capacity in June 2012 and is currently the Head of Government Services for East and Southern Africa. In this capacity, she is responsible for daily operations of the Agency and for managing the in-country processes for several ARC member states.
Prior to joining ARC, Lucy worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security of the Government of Malawi as an Economist in the Risk Management section, where she took a leading role in implementation of market based risk management instruments, such as Index Based Crop Insurance programs, Macro Derivatives programs as well as the Micro Weather Index Insurance program. She also has experience in agribusiness development and micro-finance.
Lucy holds a BSc in Agricultural Economics from the College of Agriculture, University of Malawi, and an MSc in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Country Engagement Manager
Babatunde Iyanda joined the ARC team in 2014 and currently serves as a Country Engagement Manager. In this capacity, he is responsible for managing the in-country processes in several ARC member states.
Prior to joining the ARC Agency, he was a Youth Volunteer at the Agriculture Officer of the African Union Commission Headquarters in Addis Ababa, where he worked on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and various policy issues of the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture. While undertaking his Master’s thesis, he also worked as a graduate research fellow with FAO’s Sub-Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa based in Addis Ababa.
Babatunde holds a BA in Business Administration with distinction from New Generation University College and an MSc in Food Security Studies from Addis Ababa University. A native of the Yoruba speaking ethnic group in Nigeria, he is also fluent in English.
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Mr Timothy Gotora joined the ARC team in July 2016, with over 12 years working experience in environment and sustainable development sector, specializing in climate change and variability resilience, adaptation and mitigation planning and programming. As a Country Engagement Manager, Timothy manages the in-country processes for several ARC member states.
Immediately prior to joining the ARC project, Timothy served as Programme Officer SADC Secretariat, providing policy and technical planning and coordination services to the 15-nation SADC Regional Economic Community on climate change issues. He has also worked in related capacities with the Adam Smith International’s Vuna Africa Project, UNDP Zimbabwe, SNV REDD+ Energy and Agriculture Programme, SNV Zimbabwe, Soil and More International BV, Plan International Zimbabwe, and the Environmental Management Agency of Zimbabwe among others.
Timothy holds an M.Sc. in Climate Studies from Wageningen UR in the Netherlands and a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. He is a Zimbabwean and fluent in English and Shona. [/toggle]
[toggle title="Contingency Planning" state="close"]
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.
Contingency Planning and Operations Officer
Laetitia Effiong joined ARC in 2017 as a Contingency Planning & Operations Officer, bringing with her experiences in early warning, emergency preparedness, disaster and humanitarian relief.
Prior to joining the ARC Agency, Laetitia was a Research engineer in Brazil for the account of the École de Technologie Supérieure in Montreal where she proposed improvements to sanitation process and water supply and where she developed a vulnerability index to define intervention priorities. Previously, she worked on various environmental and engineering projects with Ecole de Technologie Supérieure in Montreal. She has also worked within the Africa Union Peace and Security Department on means of fostering development through joint management and capacity building.
Laetitia holds a Bachelor in Science (B.Sc) degree in Physics & Environmental Geography from the University of Montreal (UdeM) in Canada and a Master’s in Engineering (M.Eng) in Environnemental Engineering from the Ecole de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) in Montreal. She has also completed two certificates on conflict analysis and green economy from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva.
She speaks English and French, is fluent in Brazilian Portuguese and Amharic and conversational in Spanish.[/toggle]
[toggle title="Technical Support" state="close"]
Mr Benard Onzima
Risk Analyst
Benard joined ARC in September 2017, bringing with him over 10 years of experience in program development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and vulnerability analysis after a substantial length of time in the Monitoring and Evaluation unit of FAO in Uganda. He has extensive experience in designing large agricultural and natural resource management projects, building M&E systems, undertaking capacity development, food security, resilience and vulnerability analysis. Over the years, he has contributed to the formulation of development frameworks such as the UNDAF and FAO Country Programming Frameworks in multi-disciplinary teams.
He has strong theoretical and practical experience from development and implementation of mixed-methods approaches and tools for outcome/impact measurement, vulnerability assessment and mapping, data collection and statistical analysis. This includes design, planning and analysis of quantitative surveys and qualitative data, which has formed an integrated part of most of his work, including gender disaggregated data collection and analysis.
He will be part of the ARC Secretariat Technical Support Division Supporting all aspects of the Technical Support Division’s Work and in particular, the in-country customisations of Africa RiskView and undertaking capacity development of in-country Technical Working Groups.
Benard holds a Collaborative Master of Science in Agricultural and Applied Economics from Makerere University, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Project Planning and Management from Uganda Management Institute and Bachelor of Science in Agriculture of Makerere University and other associated certificates.
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[toggle title="Legal" state="close"]
Ms Erica Hovani
Legal Counsel
Ms Erica Hovani is Legal Counsel to the African Risk Capacity, and Secretary to the ARC Agency Board of Directors.
She joined the African Risk Capacity in November 2011 and has worked on the design of the legal structures and organization of the ARC entities, including the conceptualization and drafting of the ARC Establishment Agreement, agreements with member countries, and policies for approval by the ARC Governing Board and Conference of the Parties.
Legal Consultant
Ms Lauranne Duffaut is a Belgian-francophone international lawyer. She joined ARC as a legal consultant in February 2018 and assists the legal team with drafting legal opinions, memos, contracts, MoUs, and other agreements, as well as supporting the development of institutional policies and procedures.
Prior to joining ARC, Lauranne started her career interning for the UN (at the UN Secretariat, in New York, and the UN Refugee Agency, in Armenia) and interning for the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC). She then worked as an International Criminal Lawyer with the Office of the Co-Prosecutors at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (ECCC) in Cambodia, before joining the Appeals Chamber of the Yugoslav Tribunal (ICTY) in The Hague as an Associate Legal Officer.
Lauranne obtained her Bachelor degree in Law in Belgium as well as a Masters in International Public Law in the Netherlands, and recently completed the LLM program at Penn Law, where she was an Associate Editor of the Journal of Constitutional Law and worked pro bono for the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
[/toggle][toggle title="Monitoring & Evaluation | Communications" state="close"]
Mr Aboubacar Diaby
Monitoring and Evaluation Officer
Mr Aboubacar Diaby joined ARC in late 2016, bringing with him more than 12 years experience in Monitoring and Evaluation of development programs with particular focus on agriculture, food security and natural resources management. Abou has developed and managed the M&E systems for development projects funded by USAID and AFD (French Development Agency), and worked as Monitoring and Evaluation officer for World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and Société Française d’Etude et de Conseil (SOFRECO) in Guinea.
Immediately prior to joining ARC, he was Senior Program Officer, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a multi-donor funded organization operating in 18 African countries where he spearheaded the design and implementation of the M&E policies and strategy with a focus on evaluations, economic analysis and household surveys. With AGRA, he contributed to building partnerships and professional linkages with both African-based and external research institutions in M&E and impact evaluation.
Aboubacar holds a Ph.D in Economics from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, a MSc in Agroeconomics and a BSc in General Agronomy from Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II (Morocco). He is also a member of African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), African Growth and Development Policy Modeling Consortium (AGRODEP), and American Economic Association (AEA). Aboubacar is a native of Guinea and a native French speaker and fluent in English.
Senior Communications Officer
Chinedu Moghalu, a national from Nigeria, has over 22 years’ experience in strategic communications, advocacy and resource mobilization. He was Regional Head of Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), a national development finance institution. In this role, he expanded the partnerships of the Bank to the five state governments of the Southeast and Delta states. In this period, the clientele of NEXIM for its non-oil export lending programme expanded rapidly.
Prior to this, Chinedu was Head of the Corporate Communication Directorate of NEXIM. Working with his team, the NEXIM brand was transformed from near-obscurity to become the ‘Best Reported Nigerian DFI,’ according to Bloomberg. Chinedu led several stakeholder engagements of the Bank with both the executive and legislative arms of government. Before joining NEXIM, Chinedu had more than 10 years career with various United Nations agencies, including the ILO and the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. At the Global Fund, he led the efforts for high level collaboration with African institutions, including the African Union, RECs, NEPAD, the African Development Bank. Chinedu was part of several teams that delivered various UN global, regional and national programmes.
Chinedu Moghalu holds a M.Sc. degree in Communications for Development, a B.Sc. in Political Science, an LL.B. from University of Nigeria, Nsukka and University of Lagos, Akoka. He is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, International Bar Association, International Public Relations Association (IPRA), and sits on the Board of some humanitarian NGOs..
Chinedu is fluent in English and speaks French.
Ms Barbara Fang
Digital Communications Strategist
Ms Barbara Fang joined the ARC in early 2017 as a digital communications strategist. She is responsible optimizing the online presence of ARC through website content creation, social media engagement, and digital asset development.
Prior to joining ARC, she worked on the WFP Corporate Ambassadors Programme to utilize the public influence of WFP Goodwill Ambassadors and Celebrity Partners to advocate and fundraise for WFP operations, and she worked with the UNDP Office of Online Communications to streamline the UNDP aid transparency portal and update blogs and success stories on the global website.
She earned a Bachelor’s degree in English writing, political science, and economics from the University of Pittsburgh, and she holds a joint Master’s degree in social sciences from the University of Freiburg and FLACSO Buenos Aires. Barbara is a native of New York City, fluent in English and Cantonese, and conversational in Italian.
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[toggle title="Corporate Services" state="close"]
Mr Frank Rijnders
Head of Finance and Administration
Mr Frank Rijnders is an economist and certified public accountant and has more than 15 years international development experience with international NGOs and donors. He joined the ARC team in 2016 and currently serves as the Head of Finance and Administration.
Prior to joining the ARC Agency, he worked at the European Union Delegations to Pakistan, Mozambique, Georgia and Malawi for more than 10 years. Frank’s other work experience includes Royal Netherlands Embassy in Guatemala, Médecins Sans Frontières (Sudan) and Acción Contra el Hambre (Malawi and Georgia). He has been active both at the development as well as the financial management sides of development cooperation.
Frank holds a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and is registered at The Royal Netherlands Institute of Chartered Accountants. He is a native Dutch speaker and is fluent in English and Spanish and conversational in the Portuguese language.
Senior Project Management Advisor
Ms Bronwyn Cousins began working with the ARC team from its inception in 2009 until 2013 as a Project Manager where she coordinated financial and human resources. She worked with the Africa RiskView technical team, liaised with Legal and Procurement on contractual issues and was the ARC IT focal point. Bronwyn returned to the ARC team in 2015 as Project Management Advisor.
Previous to joining ARC in 2009, Bronwyn was a Policy Officer working in the Risk Reduction and Disaster Mitigation unit of the Policy, Planning and Strategy division at the UN World Food Programme. She was part of the core team managing the programme of work of the Gates Foundation funded IFAD/WFP Weather Risk Management Facility. Bronwyn also worked on the WFP Weather Risk Management Pilot in Ethiopia from its inception in 2005. Prior to this, Bronwyn was on the Working Capital Financing Facility team, where she was primarily responsible for the financial analysis of Western and Southern Africa and Sudan on behalf the WFP Credit Committee. Bronwyn was also part of the Business Process Review of WFP in 2003/4 and established the WFP Emergency Preparedness website in 2001.
Bronwyn is a native of South Africa and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Psychology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. Bronwyn is based in New York.
Executive Assistant
Annie joined African Risk Capacity in April 2016, as Executive Assistant, bringing over ten years of experience in providing administrative and operational support services at international organizations.
Annie started her career as an Intern at the UN OCHA, where amongst other tasks she was part of a team of consultants/researchers in charge of the writing of the 1st report on the humanitarian situation of the Democratic Republic of Congo, after the conflicts the country faced between 1997 and 2001.
Prior to joining ARC, Annie worked for Positive Planet (formerly Planet Finance) where she was responsible for the management of budget, human resources, finances, general administration, and project administration. Before that, Annie occupied different administrative positions within the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office, OCHA and FAO in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
A national from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Annie holds a Bachelor Honours degree in Economics, majoring in Financial Management from the Universite Libre de Kinshasa; as well as a Master degree in Business Administration from the Management College of Southern Africa.
Programme Assistant
Ms Ropafadzo Makusha-Majonga joined the African Risk Capacity in August 2011. She is in charge of support to the Johannesburg ARC staff and to the Agency board.
Prior to joining ARC, Ropa worked at UNHCR and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe as a Database Administrator.
Ropa holds an Honors BSc degree from National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe, as well as a post-graduate diploma in Development Studies from the University of South Africa (UNISA), and currently working on her Masters in Knowledge Management with the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Ropafadzo is fluent in English and Shona.
Travel Assistant
Ms Memory Haripo joined ARC in November 2014 as a Travel Assistant.
Prior to joining ARC, Memory worked as an Administrative Assistant at the Finance Department of the European Union Delegation to South Africa. She was also a Personal Assistant to the Registrar at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe before moving to the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre in Harare to work in the same capacity under the Finance and Human Resources Director.
Memory holds a Higher National Diploma in Office Management and currently studying towards a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Governance and Development from the University of South Africa (UNISA). Memory is a fluent English and Shona Speaker.
Executive Driver
David joined ARC in November 2015 as Executive Driver to the Director-General and visiting dignitaries. David also supports with protocol issues.
Having first joined the UN family in 2007, David has served as driver at UNHCR, WHO, UNAIDS, UN-OCHA, UNICEF and, currently, with ARC. Previously, he also served as driver at the Embassies of Egypt and Ireland to South Africa.
David is a native of South Africa and hails from Pretoria, Gauteng Province.
[/toggle]
Director-General and United Nations Assistant Secretary General (ASG)
Mr Mohamed Béavogui, an expert in Agricultural Finance, was elected as the first African General Manager of the African Risk Capacity in January 2015 during the 3rd annual Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In September 2015, he took over from interim Director-General, Dr. Richard Wilcox.
Mr Béavogui has over 25 years of international experience in development, and previous to his appointment with ARC was the Director of Partnerships and Resource Mobilization and Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
He joined IFAD in 2001 as Director of Programs for West and Central Africa and was responsible for delivering the lending and grant program, and managing a large portfolio of projects.
Prior to joining IFAD, he worked for 7 years with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in New York as a Senior Project Management Officer and subsequently as Regional Director for West and Central Africa. Earlier, he worked at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Burundi as Chief Technical Adviser and in Rome. Before this, Mr Béavogui worked in the African Regional Centre for Engineering Design and Manufacturing (ARCEDEM) in Nigeria, and for the Government of Guinea.
He is a member of several panels working on regional and global issues related to food security and rural development, and the recipient of several honours and awards.
Mr Béavogui holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from Saint Petersburg Polytechnic, a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from G.A Nasser University, and undertook Executive Management Training at Harvard Kennedy School.
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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.
[toggle title="Research and Development" state="close"]
Ms Federica Carfagna
Director of Research and Development, a.i.
Ms Federica Carfagna has worked on the African Risk Capacity project as a vulnerability analyst since September 2009 and is now the manager of the ARC Secretariat’s Research and Development Team. A statistician by training, she is one of the main authors of the methodology by which the Africa RiskView software, the technical engine of ARC, estimates the impact of drought in terms of number of people affected and response costs.
Prior to joining ARC, she worked as statistician for WFP, UN Headquarters in New York, IFAD, and Rome City Hall. A native of Rome, Italy, Federica has a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Statistics and Economics from the University of Rome, “La Sapienza”, including a one-year exchange programme at the Cass Business School in London. Federica is a native Italian speaker, and she is fluent in English and French and conversational in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.
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Mr Peter Hoefsloot
Agronomist and Software Developer
Peter Hoefsloot joined ARC at its inception in 2009 as an agronomist and software developer. Peter studied Agriculture and Meteorology at Wageningen University. He started working for FAO 25 years ago and developed software to estimate crop yields from water balance calculations. This software Agrometshell has become the standard solution for many applications in developing countries. AgrometShell has been extended to LEAP (for Ethiopia) and thereafter ARV for African Risk Capacity, the main differences being the use of satellite information. ARV development has been taken over by professional programmers, and Peter has taken up the role of senior advisor to the R&D team. Peter has given workshops and technical training to most countries South of the Sahara and has lived on the continent for 8 years.
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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.
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Mr Henry Bosa
Outbreak & Epidemic Senior Public Health Officer, Outbreaks and Epidemics (O&E)
Henry Bosa joined ARC as a Senior Public Health Specialist for Outbreak & Epidemics in February 2017, bringing with him a 10 years’ experience in disease outbreak response and emerging infectious surveillance in various African countries. He started his career as a medical doctor in 2001, rising to a level of a medical superintendent of a general hospital in Uganda. Since 2007, Henry has been involved in the management of several disease outbreaks across Africa: the Ebola outbreak in Bundibugyo in Uganda (2007), the dengue fever outbreak in Mogadishu Somalia (2011), the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone (2014 and 2015), and the mysterious disease outbreak in Aweil, South Sudan (2016). Between 2011 and 2012, Henry acted as the Ministry of Health Clinical Lead during the viral haemorrhagic fever outbreaks in Uganda for both Ebola (2011, 2012) and Marburg (2012). In addition, Henry has extensively worked on different outbreaks including Yellow Fever, Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever, meningitis and human Rift Valley Fever.
In 2015, Henry worked as an Ebola Response Preparedness Officer with World Health Organization Country office in Ghana. Prior to joining ARC, Henry was an Epidemiology Research Fellow at Uganda Virus Research Institute, where his work focused mainly on arbovirus and emerging infectious diseases surveillance systems, outbreak response, and clinical epidemiology.
Henry is a member of the Scientific Panel of Experts on the Joint Mobile Emerging Disease Intervention Clinical Capacity (JMEDICC), a clinical trial on medical counter-measures to test candidate molecules in treatment of Ebola or Marburg. He holds a Masters of Science degree (Disease Control and Epidemiology Concentration) from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Makerere University in Uganda. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Control of Tropical Infectious Diseases from the University of Ancona, Italy.
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Dr Amadou Bah
Public Health and Country Liaison Officer, Outbreaks and Epidemics (O&E)
Dr Amadou Bah joined ARC in 2017 as a Public Health and Country Liaison Officer, bringing with him his experience in life sciences and international health management. Amadou will support the ARC Outbreak & Epidemic Insurance Programme by coordinating the R&D and in-country operational activities.
Previously, Amadou supported the development of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership’s “Action and Investment to defeat Malaria 2016-2030 (AIM) – for a malaria-free world”. His work focused on quantifying the public health and economic benefits of achieving the 2030 global malaria goals, as well as calculating the potential costs of malaria resurgence. In 2015, as part of the response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Amadou supported Guinea through a WHO/European Mobile Laboratory deployment, and provided laboratory diagnosis for Ebola virus disease.
Prior to joining ARC, Amadou worked as a Consultant for the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the WHO Global Malaria Programme. He also worked as Research Associate at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich.
A Guinean national, Amadou holds a PhD degree in Microbiology & Molecular Biology from Université de Sherbrooke and Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon. He is currently pursuing an MBA in International Health Management from the Swiss TPH. Amadou is a native French speaker and is fluent in English.
[/toggle]
[toggle title="Policy and Technical Advisory Services" state="close"]
Dr Jean-Claude Bidogeza
Lead Economist
Dr Jean-Claude Bidogeza joined ARC in 2018 as Lead Economist. He brings to the Agency over 15 years of experience in management, academia and research and development. Prior to ARC, he was a staff at the World Bank fully embedded in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources of Rwanda as Strategic Advisor to the Permanent Secretary (PS) and advising the Ministry on various operational, technical, and strategic issues related to the agriculture sector in Rwanda.
Dr Bidogeza also has considerable experience working with international organisations and across the African continent having worked with the World Vegetable Center, Africa, the ACP Secretariat, UNCTAD, FARA, UNDP, IFDC and a number of Universities. For work purpose, Jean-Claude has resided on a long term basis in Nairobi (Kenya), Accra (Ghana), Yaoundé (Cameroon) and Kigali (Rwanda), and the scope of his work has covered numerous countries in west, central, eastern and southern Africa regions and beyond.
He has written and published numerous papers, articles, policy briefs and technical reports on a number of multifaceted issues of agricultural development e.g. agricultural land productivity, theory and practice of production efficiency, urbanization, structural transformation of agriculture, economic analysis of agricultural value chains, modelling risks due to weather and price fluctuations, trade, commodities, nutrition and gender using, among others, mathematical programming, econometric and crop growth modelling techniques.
Jean-Claude holds a PhD in business economics from Wageningen University and Research Center (The Netherlands), an MSc in the management of physical land resources from Ghent University (Belgium), an agricultural engineering degree majoring in animal production from the University of Burundi. He has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Georgia (USA) where he worked on calibrating and applying Decision Support Systems for Agroecology Transfer (DSSAT), an assemblage of crop growth models tool, to simulate growth and yields estimates of a number of tropical crops under a variety of physical, chemical and weather conditions scenarios. He is a citizen of Burundi and Rwanda and is fluent in English and French.
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Mr Kipkorir Koskei
Senior Technical Advisor
Mr Kipkorir Koskei joined African Risk Capacity Policy and Technical Services team as a Senior Technical Advisor in 2017 bringing extensive experience in financial risk management, underwriting and country risk assessment from a number of global financial institutions. Mr Koskei brings expertise in analysing, structuring and underwriting debt financing solutions and derivatives strategies for clients across a range of industries.
His experience spans corporate clients, government entities, sovereign wealth funds, supranationals and banks across various geographies having worked in London, Tokyo and Singapore, with experience gained from Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America.
Before joining ARC, Mr Koskei was an underwriting analyst at Bank of America with specific coverage of corporates and financial institutions in South Africa, Turkey, Russia and Central and Eastern Europe. Prior to this, he worked at Deutsche Bank developing risk strategy within the Transaction Banking division developing product and regional strategy to help drive growth within the business. Most notably his work in building the Africa strategy for Trade Finance diversified the business revenue streams as well as deepened its footprint in the region.
A citizen of Kenya and the UK, Kipkorir holds a Masters in Law (Finance Concentration) from University College London (UCL) and an undergraduate degree in Law from University of Warwick. He is fluent in Swahili and English.
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Ms Marie-Beatrice Brou
Resource Mobilization Consultant
Ms Marie-Beatrice Brou joined ARC in February 2017 as a Resource Mobilization Consultant, particularly in charge of Donor Relations.
Marie-Beatrice is an experienced Legal Officer with expertise in International Law and Economics who sought a new challenge, especially in the field of development in Africa. Marie-Beatrice gained legal experience in the private and public sectors within the field of electricity, water supply and mass distribution. In her country of origin, she served in different Scientific and Technical Committees such as the African Water Association (AfWa). In 2009, she assisted the 15th International African Water Congress in Kampala, whose themes were related to climate change and energy issues, threats to the water and sanitation industry in Africa, partnership, and contractualization for better water and sanitation services in order to progress towards the Millennium Goals for Development. She is passionate about natural resource management, fisheries, and agriculture in Africa. Before joining ARC, Marie-Beatrice worked for 8 years as a Legal Officer in private companies in Cote d’Ivoire, then joined the UN Office of Legal Affairs in New York with a six-month internship agreement as a Researcher.
An Ivorian national, Marie-Beatrice holds a Master in International Economic Law from the University of Paris 1 La Sorbonne (France) and a Master’s Degree in International Law of the Sea from the University of Nantes (France). She is a native French-speaker and is also fluent in English.
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Amanda Archibong Partnerships Manager
Amanda joined the ARC Policy & Technical Services team as Partnerships Manager in April 2017.
Ms Archibong is an experienced Development Professional with expertise in International Trade & Regional Integration. Her experience also spans corporate functions in the areas of Strategic Management, Grant Management and Project Coordination.
Amanda’s experience has been gained in both the public and private sectors with the ECOWAS Commission, GIZ Support Programme to ECOWAS and Saana Consulting UK Ltd, a Development Consulting firm. She brings experience working on a range of donor projects including Danida, DFID, GIZ and the World Bank.
Most recently, Amanda worked with Saana Consulting UK Ltd coordinating its portfolio of donor-supported projects in West Africa as well as projects in the Pacific Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu.
Prior to this, she worked as consultant with the GIZ Support Programme to ECOWAS, providing Strategic Management support to its functioning. She also worked in the ECOWAS Commission where she provided support to the operationalization of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme, which is ECOWAS’ modality for operating a Free Trade Area.
A Nigerian national, Amanda has a BA in International Studies and Politics and an MSC in International Management from Greenwich and Loughborough Universities respectively.
Amanda is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers’ Community.
[/toggle]
[toggle title="Country Engagement: West and Central Africa" state="close"]
Ms Assia Sidibe
Head of Government Services for West and Central Africa
Assia Sidibe joined the ARC team in 2014 and currently serves as the Head of Government Services for West and Central Africa, in which she is responsible for managing the in-country processes for nations in those regions.
Prior to joining the ARC Agency, she was an Investment Officer at the French Development Agency in Johannesburg, where she worked on capacity building and municipal infrastructure financing. She has also worked for KPMG’s Audit and Advisory in Paris, where she was a consultant and an auditor in the insurance department.
A native of Mali, Assia holds a BSc in International Business from the École supérieure du commerce extérieur of Paris-La Defense and a Master’s Degree in Finance and Strategy from Sciences Po Paris. Assia is a native French speaker and is fluent in English.
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Ms Fatou Diagne
Country Engagement Manager
Fatou Diagne is a consultant in Country Engagement and Government Services for the ARC for West Africa. Fatou started her career as an investment banker at Citigroup in London and Johannesburg before joining the ARC in 2012 as Regional Programme Officer. She also worked for Standard & Poor’s sovereigns ratings division in London and as an advisor in the Executive Office of SFR, one of France’s leading mobile operators.
Aside from the ARC, Fatou is active in venture capital investments, helping fund fast growing technology companies through The Real Economy Effect and Bootstrap Europe Venture Debt Fund, which she cofounded.
Fatou holds a BSc in Economics and Finance from the University of Calgary, and graduated from the HEC Business School in Paris where she majored in Finance. Fatou is fluent in French, English, Wolof and Spanish.
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Ms Aissata Lam
Country Engagement Manager
Aissata joined ARC as Country Engagement Manager to support the effort of the Country Engagement Division for West and Central Africa.
Before joining ARC, Aissata worked for FAO as Project Officer on Microfinance and Social protection (cash+) projects. Prior to that, Aissata was an underwriter at Liberty International Underwriters in Canada, working on Specialty Casualty Insurance in the Eastern Canadian Region. She worked as well for UNICEF Canada. A native from Mauritania, Aissata is the founder of the Junior Chamber of Commerce of Mauritania, a youth-led organization building capacity for young entrepreneurs and Startups.
Aissata holds a Bachelor degree of Business Administration in Finance and International Business from HEC Montreal. She is currently completing her Graduate thesis on Rural Finance, with focus on Productive Safety Nets and Microcredit at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University.
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Mr Mamadi Sidibe
Country Engagement Manager
Prior to joining ARC, Mamadi worked as Project Manager at Cyleone, a company based in Montpellier, France, specialized in building environmental monitoring system for companies such as TOTAL, GRDF and SNCF. At Cyleone, Mamadi contributed on building new products and solutions for clients, was responsible for customer relations and project management. While attaining to that position, he also worked as a Teaching Officer in Reliability, Dependability and Safety Engineering at the Faculty of Science of the university of Montpellier.
A national from Guinea, Mamadi holds a Master of Science in the Field of Electronics, specialized in Embedded Systems from the University of Montpellier and a University degree of technology technical status in Network Engineering and Telecommunication from the University Institute of Technology of Béziers, France. Mamadi is a native French speaker and is fluent in English.
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Ms Meguy Massoudi
Country Engagement Manager
Meguy Massoudi joined ARC in July 2016 as a Junior Consultant to assist with logistics initially and evolved to take on the responsibility of a Junior Country Engagement Manager, namely for Togo.
Prior to ARC, Meguy pursued a Bachelor’s degree in economics at Monash University South Africa. She was also a youth volunteer and treasurer for Interact, a society that works under the Rotary Club, and a writer for YouthVillage online magazine.
Originally from the Republic of the Congo and The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Meguy is fluent in French and English and has a basic knowledge of Spanish.
[/toggle]
[toggle title="Country Engagement: East and Southern Africa" state="close"]
Ms Lucy Nyirenda
Acting Programme Coordinator and Head of Government Services for East and Southern Africa
Lucy Nyirenda joined the African Risk Capacity in June 2012 and is currently the Head of Government Services for East and Southern Africa. In this capacity, she is responsible for daily operations of the Agency and for managing the in-country processes for several ARC member states.
Prior to joining ARC, Lucy worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security of the Government of Malawi as an Economist in the Risk Management section, where she took a leading role in implementation of market based risk management instruments, such as Index Based Crop Insurance programs, Macro Derivatives programs as well as the Micro Weather Index Insurance program. She also has experience in agribusiness development and micro-finance.
Lucy holds a BSc in Agricultural Economics from the College of Agriculture, University of Malawi, and an MSc in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida in Gainesville.
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Mr Babatunde Iyanda
Country Engagement Manager
Babatunde Iyanda joined the ARC team in 2014 and currently serves as a Country Engagement Manager. In this capacity, he is responsible for managing the in-country processes in several ARC member states.
Prior to joining the ARC Agency, he was a Youth Volunteer at the Agriculture Officer of the African Union Commission Headquarters in Addis Ababa, where he worked on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and various policy issues of the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture. While undertaking his Master’s thesis, he also worked as a graduate research fellow with FAO’s Sub-Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa based in Addis Ababa.
Babatunde holds a BA in Business Administration with distinction from New Generation University College and an MSc in Food Security Studies from Addis Ababa University. A native of the Yoruba speaking ethnic group in Nigeria, he is also fluent in English.
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Mr Timothy Gotora Country Engagement Manager
r
Mr Timothy Gotora joined the ARC team in July 2016, with over 12 years working experience in environment and sustainable development sector, specializing in climate change and variability resilience, adaptation and mitigation planning and programming. As a Country Engagement Manager, Timothy manages the in-country processes for several ARC member states.
Immediately prior to joining the ARC project, Timothy served as Programme Officer SADC Secretariat, providing policy and technical planning and coordination services to the 15-nation SADC Regional Economic Community on climate change issues. He has also worked in related capacities with the Adam Smith International’s Vuna Africa Project, UNDP Zimbabwe, SNV REDD+ Energy and Agriculture Programme, SNV Zimbabwe, Soil and More International BV, Plan International Zimbabwe, and the Environmental Management Agency of Zimbabwe among others.
Timothy holds an M.Sc. in Climate Studies from Wageningen UR in the Netherlands and a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. He is a Zimbabwean and fluent in English and Shona. [/toggle]
[toggle title="Contingency Planning" state="close"]
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.
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Ms Laetitia Effiong
Contingency Planning and Operations Officer
Laetitia Effiong joined ARC in 2017 as a Contingency Planning & Operations Officer, bringing with her experiences in early warning, emergency preparedness, disaster and humanitarian relief.
Prior to joining the ARC Agency, Laetitia was a Research engineer in Brazil for the account of the École de Technologie Supérieure in Montreal where she proposed improvements to sanitation process and water supply and where she developed a vulnerability index to define intervention priorities. Previously, she worked on various environmental and engineering projects with Ecole de Technologie Supérieure in Montreal. She has also worked within the Africa Union Peace and Security Department on means of fostering development through joint management and capacity building.
Laetitia holds a Bachelor in Science (B.Sc) degree in Physics & Environmental Geography from the University of Montreal (UdeM) in Canada and a Master’s in Engineering (M.Eng) in Environnemental Engineering from the Ecole de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) in Montreal. She has also completed two certificates on conflict analysis and green economy from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva.
She speaks English and French, is fluent in Brazilian Portuguese and Amharic and conversational in Spanish.[/toggle]
[toggle title="Technical Support" state="close"]
Mr Benard Onzima
Risk Analyst
Benard joined ARC in September 2017, bringing with him over 10 years of experience in program development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and vulnerability analysis after a substantial length of time in the Monitoring and Evaluation unit of FAO in Uganda. He has extensive experience in designing large agricultural and natural resource management projects, building M&E systems, undertaking capacity development, food security, resilience and vulnerability analysis. Over the years, he has contributed to the formulation of development frameworks such as the UNDAF and FAO Country Programming Frameworks in multi-disciplinary teams.
He has strong theoretical and practical experience from development and implementation of mixed-methods approaches and tools for outcome/impact measurement, vulnerability assessment and mapping, data collection and statistical analysis. This includes design, planning and analysis of quantitative surveys and qualitative data, which has formed an integrated part of most of his work, including gender disaggregated data collection and analysis.
He will be part of the ARC Secretariat Technical Support Division Supporting all aspects of the Technical Support Division’s Work and in particular, the in-country customisations of Africa RiskView and undertaking capacity development of in-country Technical Working Groups.
Benard holds a Collaborative Master of Science in Agricultural and Applied Economics from Makerere University, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Project Planning and Management from Uganda Management Institute and Bachelor of Science in Agriculture of Makerere University and other associated certificates.
[/toggle]
[toggle title="Legal" state="close"]
Ms Erica Hovani
Legal Counsel
Ms Erica Hovani is Legal Counsel to the African Risk Capacity, and Secretary to the ARC Agency Board of Directors.
She joined the African Risk Capacity in November 2011 and has worked on the design of the legal structures and organization of the ARC entities, including the conceptualization and drafting of the ARC Establishment Agreement, agreements with member countries, and policies for approval by the ARC Governing Board and Conference of the Parties.
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Ms Lauranne Duffaut
Legal Consultant
Ms Lauranne Duffaut is a Belgian-francophone international lawyer. She joined ARC as a legal consultant in February 2018 and assists the legal team with drafting legal opinions, memos, contracts, MoUs, and other agreements, as well as supporting the development of institutional policies and procedures.
Prior to joining ARC, Lauranne started her career interning for the UN (at the UN Secretariat, in New York, and the UN Refugee Agency, in Armenia) and interning for the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC). She then worked as an International Criminal Lawyer with the Office of the Co-Prosecutors at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (ECCC) in Cambodia, before joining the Appeals Chamber of the Yugoslav Tribunal (ICTY) in The Hague as an Associate Legal Officer.
Lauranne obtained her Bachelor degree in Law in Belgium as well as a Masters in International Public Law in the Netherlands, and recently completed the LLM program at Penn Law, where she was an Associate Editor of the Journal of Constitutional Law and worked pro bono for the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
[/toggle][toggle title="Monitoring & Evaluation | Communications" state="close"]
Mr Aboubacar Diaby
Monitoring and Evaluation Officer
Mr Aboubacar Diaby joined ARC in late 2016, bringing with him more than 12 years experience in Monitoring and Evaluation of development programs with particular focus on agriculture, food security and natural resources management. Abou has developed and managed the M&E systems for development projects funded by USAID and AFD (French Development Agency), and worked as Monitoring and Evaluation officer for World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and Société Française d’Etude et de Conseil (SOFRECO) in Guinea.
Immediately prior to joining ARC, he was Senior Program Officer, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a multi-donor funded organization operating in 18 African countries where he spearheaded the design and implementation of the M&E policies and strategy with a focus on evaluations, economic analysis and household surveys. With AGRA, he contributed to building partnerships and professional linkages with both African-based and external research institutions in M&E and impact evaluation.
Aboubacar holds a Ph.D in Economics from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, a MSc in Agroeconomics and a BSc in General Agronomy from Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II (Morocco). He is also a member of African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), African Growth and Development Policy Modeling Consortium (AGRODEP), and American Economic Association (AEA). Aboubacar is a native of Guinea and a native French speaker and fluent in English.
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Mr Chinedu Moghalu
Senior Communications Officer
Chinedu Moghalu, a national from Nigeria, has over 22 years’ experience in strategic communications, advocacy and resource mobilization. He was Regional Head of Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), a national development finance institution. In this role, he expanded the partnerships of the Bank to the five state governments of the Southeast and Delta states. In this period, the clientele of NEXIM for its non-oil export lending programme expanded rapidly.
Prior to this, Chinedu was Head of the Corporate Communication Directorate of NEXIM. Working with his team, the NEXIM brand was transformed from near-obscurity to become the ‘Best Reported Nigerian DFI,’ according to Bloomberg. Chinedu led several stakeholder engagements of the Bank with both the executive and legislative arms of government. Before joining NEXIM, Chinedu had more than 10 years career with various United Nations agencies, including the ILO and the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. At the Global Fund, he led the efforts for high level collaboration with African institutions, including the African Union, RECs, NEPAD, the African Development Bank. Chinedu was part of several teams that delivered various UN global, regional and national programmes.
Chinedu Moghalu holds a M.Sc. degree in Communications for Development, a B.Sc. in Political Science, an LL.B. from University of Nigeria, Nsukka and University of Lagos, Akoka. He is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, International Bar Association, International Public Relations Association (IPRA), and sits on the Board of some humanitarian NGOs..
Chinedu is fluent in English and speaks French.
Ms Barbara Fang
Digital Communications Strategist
Ms Barbara Fang joined the ARC in early 2017 as a digital communications strategist. She is responsible optimizing the online presence of ARC through website content creation, social media engagement, and digital asset development.
Prior to joining ARC, she worked on the WFP Corporate Ambassadors Programme to utilize the public influence of WFP Goodwill Ambassadors and Celebrity Partners to advocate and fundraise for WFP operations, and she worked with the UNDP Office of Online Communications to streamline the UNDP aid transparency portal and update blogs and success stories on the global website.
She earned a Bachelor’s degree in English writing, political science, and economics from the University of Pittsburgh, and she holds a joint Master’s degree in social sciences from the University of Freiburg and FLACSO Buenos Aires. Barbara is a native of New York City, fluent in English and Cantonese, and conversational in Italian.
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Mr Frank Rijnders
Head of Finance and Administration
Mr Frank Rijnders is an economist and certified public accountant and has more than 15 years international development experience with international NGOs and donors. He joined the ARC team in 2016 and currently serves as the Head of Finance and Administration.
Prior to joining the ARC Agency, he worked at the European Union Delegations to Pakistan, Mozambique, Georgia and Malawi for more than 10 years. Frank’s other work experience includes Royal Netherlands Embassy in Guatemala, Médecins Sans Frontières (Sudan) and Acción Contra el Hambre (Malawi and Georgia). He has been active both at the development as well as the financial management sides of development cooperation.
Frank holds a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and is registered at The Royal Netherlands Institute of Chartered Accountants. He is a native Dutch speaker and is fluent in English and Spanish and conversational in the Portuguese language.
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Ms Bronwyn Cousins
Senior Project Management Advisor
Ms Bronwyn Cousins began working with the ARC team from its inception in 2009 until 2013 as a Project Manager where she coordinated financial and human resources. She worked with the Africa RiskView technical team, liaised with Legal and Procurement on contractual issues and was the ARC IT focal point. Bronwyn returned to the ARC team in 2015 as Project Management Advisor.
Previous to joining ARC in 2009, Bronwyn was a Policy Officer working in the Risk Reduction and Disaster Mitigation unit of the Policy, Planning and Strategy division at the UN World Food Programme. She was part of the core team managing the programme of work of the Gates Foundation funded IFAD/WFP Weather Risk Management Facility. Bronwyn also worked on the WFP Weather Risk Management Pilot in Ethiopia from its inception in 2005. Prior to this, Bronwyn was on the Working Capital Financing Facility team, where she was primarily responsible for the financial analysis of Western and Southern Africa and Sudan on behalf the WFP Credit Committee. Bronwyn was also part of the Business Process Review of WFP in 2003/4 and established the WFP Emergency Preparedness website in 2001.
Bronwyn is a native of South Africa and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Psychology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. Bronwyn is based in New York.
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Ms Annie Kyanza
Executive Assistant
Annie joined African Risk Capacity in April 2016, as Executive Assistant, bringing over ten years of experience in providing administrative and operational support services at international organizations.
Annie started her career as an Intern at the UN OCHA, where amongst other tasks she was part of a team of consultants/researchers in charge of the writing of the 1st report on the humanitarian situation of the Democratic Republic of Congo, after the conflicts the country faced between 1997 and 2001.
Prior to joining ARC, Annie worked for Positive Planet (formerly Planet Finance) where she was responsible for the management of budget, human resources, finances, general administration, and project administration. Before that, Annie occupied different administrative positions within the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office, OCHA and FAO in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
A national from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Annie holds a Bachelor Honours degree in Economics, majoring in Financial Management from the Universite Libre de Kinshasa; as well as a Master degree in Business Administration from the Management College of Southern Africa.
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Ms Ropafadzo Makusha
Programme Assistant
Ms Ropafadzo Makusha-Majonga joined the African Risk Capacity in August 2011. She is in charge of support to the Johannesburg ARC staff and to the Agency board.
Prior to joining ARC, Ropa worked at UNHCR and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe as a Database Administrator.
Ropa holds an Honors BSc degree from National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe, as well as a post-graduate diploma in Development Studies from the University of South Africa (UNISA), and currently working on her Masters in Knowledge Management with the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Ropafadzo is fluent in English and Shona.
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Ms Memory Haripo
Travel Assistant
Ms Memory Haripo joined ARC in November 2014 as a Travel Assistant.
Prior to joining ARC, Memory worked as an Administrative Assistant at the Finance Department of the European Union Delegation to South Africa. She was also a Personal Assistant to the Registrar at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe before moving to the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre in Harare to work in the same capacity under the Finance and Human Resources Director.
Memory holds a Higher National Diploma in Office Management and currently studying towards a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Governance and Development from the University of South Africa (UNISA). Memory is a fluent English and Shona Speaker.
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Mr David Mawala
Executive Driver
David joined ARC in November 2015 as Executive Driver to the Director-General and visiting dignitaries. David also supports with protocol issues.
Having first joined the UN family in 2007, David has served as driver at UNHCR, WHO, UNAIDS, UN-OCHA, UNICEF and, currently, with ARC. Previously, he also served as driver at the Embassies of Egypt and Ireland to South Africa.
David is a native of South Africa and hails from Pretoria, Gauteng Province.
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