Africa: Progress and pitfalls

Andris Piebalgs is an experienced Latvian politician who occupied key positions at both the national and European levels. He is currently a member of the Latvian political party UNITY. Previously, he worked in the Latvian diplomatic service, first serving as the Latvian ambassador to Estonia, where he helped resolve a sea border issue between the two states. He went on to become the Latvian ambassador to the EU, in which role he helped establish Latvia as the EU candidate country. Afterwards, Piebalgs served as the European commissioner for energy and then as the European commissioner for development.

Hiroshi Kato is an expert on international development, development effectiveness and global development agendas. In addition to his current position, he is also the Director of the JICA Research Institute. Prior to joining JICA, Kato was a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies at Kobe University.

Proksch has been Director General for Africa since 2007. He also holds the position of International Chairman of the International Learning Network on Capacity Development (LenCD). He is in charge of all programs and projects of GIZ in Africa with an overall annual turnover of around 300 million Euros. He has been actively involved in development policy and cooperation for nearly 30 years. He held high level-managment position while working for several years in Nepal, Pakistan, Ecuador and Vietnam. He is a well-known specialist on governance, decentralisation and capacity development.

Prior to his function as Secretary General of the Africa Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Group of States, Mumuni served as Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and as Minister for Employment and Social Welfare. Mumuni was elected Member of Parliament for a third time, before taking office as ACP Secretary General.

In his current capacity, Vervaeke is responsible the EU foreign affairs as well as the programming of the EU financial cooperation in the region. He has also been appointed Senior EU Coordinator for the Great Lakes region, working closely with the EU Delegations, the European Commission and EU Member States to advance European objectives of peace and prosperity in the region. Before taking up this post, Vervaeke was the EU Special Representative to the African Union and the Head of Delegation of the European Commission Delegation to the AU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Pezzini has held several positions since he joined the OECD in 1995. He has been Economic Advisor for various international organisations and think tanks in the field of economic development, industrial organisation and regional economics. His work mainly focused on policies for clusters and networks of small and medium sized firms, as well as policies to valorise natural and cultural resources.

Prior to his appointment as Secretary General for Africa, Abiodun headed the company’s business development division in Nigeria. From 2004 to 2008, he was Project Director at Total EP, Paris, responsible for proactive business origination and negotiation for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Cornaro has been working in the European Commission Development and Cooperation Directorate for several years, where he started as Director for the European Neighbourhood, responsible for EU funding for Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. Since 2012, Cornaro has been overseeing all EU funded development activities for partner countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the European Neighbourhood, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as with the Overseas Countries and Territories. He acquired extensive experience in the development policies while working in Mali, Zimbabwe and Uganda for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Austrian Foreign Service.

Kayizzi-Mugerwa is Director of Development Research at the African Development Bank. He has also been Regional Director for East Africa, Director for Policy, Lead Economist and Head of the Extended Mission to Zimbabwe. He was previously Project Director at the UN University’s World Institute for Development Economics Research in Helsinki and Senior Economist at the IMF. He has published several articles on macroeconomic policies and development in Africa.

Investeq Capital Limited provides financing and financial solutions to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the African continent. Awendo has over 20 years of post qualification experience in audit, accounting, management consultancy and corporate finance advisory. Awendo is a board member of various SMEs as well as member of the advisory board of the Kenya Institute of Management.

The African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC) is a business accelerator for young, growth-oriented entrepreneurs in Africa to aid them in the creating of jobs within their communities. Oyler has more than 10 years of experience working in education and international development. She is a visionary strategist, passionate about developing human capital, and rooted in data-driven decision-making, who understands the tremendous need for opportunities to bolster small-medium enterprise development with a focus on local relevancy.

Rekindle Learning is an education technology company that delivers mobile learning aids. Rekindle’s learning applications utilise the latest pedagocic trends to ensure effective and long-term learning. Rekindle Learning as been quoted as ‘the internet’s transformative potential in Africa and a striking innovation in mobile learning’. Rabana has received mutliple awards and honours. She has been listed among the Forbes ‘30 under 30 – Africa’s Best Young Entrepreneurs’ and among the 2013 ’20 Young Power Women In Africa’.

Biruta’s work as Minister of Education has proven to be successful in facilitating access to primary education. In fact Rwanda has the highest primary school enrolment rates in Africa, gender parity at primary level and the country is on track to achieve universal access to primary education by 2015. Rwanda won the Commonwealth Education Good Practice Awards 2012, for the innovative fast-tracking strategies of the 9 Year Basic Education Programme.

Louis Onyango Otieno is the Director of Microsoft 4Africa, a strategic initiative focused on supporting Africa’s  development towards global competitiveness. The numerous innovations he has accomplished in his overall career prove his passion for ICT and development. He played a leading role in the localisation of Microsoft Office & Windows into Kiswahili and the ‘TV White Spaces’, enabling high-speed, low-cost broadband access into the un-served rural Africa.