Patrick leads Habitat for Humanity International’s global practice to develop market-based solutions for improved and affordable shelter. The market development practice at Habitat seeks to strengthen affordable housing value chains, to stimulate innovation and enterprise solutions for shelter and to mobilize investment capital to move housing solutions to scale. Prior to HFH, Patrick worked in Africa directly supporting financial sector development under USAID IGP and Economic Strengthening funding, which included supporting the sector’s growth and advocacy agenda by managing a three-country national microfinance network support programs. He also served as Executive Director of Urwego Opportunity Bank LLC, the largest financial institution for the informal sector in Rwanda, and initiated the startup of Turame in Burundi, and Hekima in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Sherry Youssef is an international development consultant with over 22 years’ experience designing, implementing and managing international development programmes globally. She is currently the Director of Work at FHI360 where she manages a global team implementing projects focused on income generation, livelihoods, women’s economic empowerment and local economic growth to name a few . She was previously the Technical Director the DFID-Islamic Development Bank Funded Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF) under implementation in Egypt, Jordan and Palestine. She was also a Senior Advisor to Making Cents International, providing strategic and technical inputs. Previously she established and managed DAI’s Youth and Workforce Development Practice and where she was their Global Practice Lead. Sherry was also the YouthPower IDIQ Manager for DAI. Sherry was also a Program Manager for NetHope managing USAID’S Global Broadband Initiative IYCE (Innovations for Youth Capacity and Engagement) Programme where she oversaw the design, development and piloting of a one of a kind serious online social game to stimulate youth engagement. Sherry has also spent many years in the field working as DOT’s Egypt Country Manager as well as in senior technical roles on a number USAID, CIDA, DFID and other international funded donor programmes. Sherry has a BA with honors from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA and Certificate in International Business Diplomacy from Georgetown University.
Dorothea Arndt entered the not for profit sector in 2006, leaving a Director role at Yahoo! to join the British Red Cross as Head of Digital. There, she wrote the organization's first coherent digital strategy, leaving it optimally equipped to maximize its digital income, and tripling its digital audience in two years.
In 2013, Dorothea joined Hand in Hand International and with it, the world of Savings Groups, women's economic empowerment and other SEEP themes as Head of Communications. Two years later her role expanded to include corporate partnerships, and in 2018 she was named CEO. Hand in H and empowers women with the training and tools to beat the odds and succeed as entrepreneurs. The money they earn and the confidence they gain changes everything. Wh ole families and communities rise with them. Since 2003, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, the organization has helped more than 3 million women launch microbusinesses that can stand the test of time.
Some are smallholder farmers learning to stand up to climate change. Some are refugees trying to start a new life after running from conflict. Others are vulnerable young women and girls starting to dream and plan for the future.
As CEO, Dorothea spearheaded a change program that pivoted the organization from being founder led (and to a large extent, funde d) to one that has an award winning fundraising and program management operation, an experienced management team and a diverse board. Under her leadership, Hand in Hand has achieved a balanced income between corporate, foundation, and institutional funding, securing six and seven-figure partnerships with Swiss Re, Visa, the IKEA Foundation, Boeing, GIZ and more. She also serves as Treasurer on the board of Hand in Hand Eastern Africa (Kenya) and as a Member of the Board Council f or Hand in Hand Tanzania.
Dr. Laté Lawson-Lartego is passionate about social justice and poverty eradication around the world. He is Oxfam America’s Food Systems Theme Director since May 2017. His theme’s vision is inclusive, resilient sustainable and healthy food systems for all. His theme centers its work to empower marginalized women, and youth who produce, process and deliver our food to thrive, realize their rights and sustain the environment. The theme straddles program, policy and campaign and comprises three sub-themes: Expanding Opportunities for Women & Youth, Corporate Engagement and Climate Change & Energy.
Steve Mason is the Regional Director of North America (Programs and Partnerships), where he is responsible for managing a program portfolio spanning 20 countries, developing and maintaining relationships with Canadian partners and providing intellectual and organizational leadership to the Foundation. Prior to joining AKFC, Steve was the founding Regional CEO of Aga Khan Foundation (West Africa), based in Bamako, Mali, where he oversaw an integrated portfolio of programs in economic inclusion, food security, health and education. Steve previously worked for AKF as the Manager of External Relations in Afghanistan and as the Regional Programme Manager in East Africa. Prior to joining the Foundation, he was Executive Director of the United Nations Association in Canada.
Steve has a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and a B.Sc in Bio-Math from the University of New Brunswick. He has sat on the Boards of Directors of several organizations, including the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (West Africa) and the Kenya Civil Society Competency and Standards Program. Steve recently completed Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management Executive Education program.
Prabhat is a seasoned international development professional with over two decades of experience in leading livelihoods, financial inclusion and enterprise development initiatives across Asia, Africa and North America. Currently, as CEO of Grameen Foundation India, Prabhat provides strategic leadership to GF India, including Organizational strategy and performance, External relationships and representation, stewardship of resources, compliances, and program design and quality. He also serves as the CEO for GFI’s subsidiary Grameen Foundation for Social Impact and Managing Trustee of Freedom from Hunger India Trust, working in health and nutrition domains.
Earlier, Prabhat worked at The MasterCard Foundation Canada where he managed a portfolio of programs to facilitate access to saving services for low income communities across eighteen countries in Africa, reaching millions of clients. Prabhat has established and managed partnership with Banks, NGOs, UN Agencies and Fintech companies towards the common objective of designing accessible, affordable and appropriate financial services to effectively serve low income populations. A key focus of his work has been to address needs of populations facing exclusion on account of being too poor or being too far from financial institutions and design strategies for their inclusion.
Prabhat has a postgraduate in Management and serves on several non- profit and Impact investment fund boards. He is a regular speaker at various global and national conferences and also serves as guest faculty at leading academic institutions.
Chipili Lumpa Mwaba is a rural development specialist with over 14 years successful experience in development work. She is currently the Head of Informal Finance at FSD Zambia. She leads community-based financial inclusion efforts that bring various financial sector players together to support sustainable, efficient and effective financial ecosystems. Her work contributes directly to eduction in economic vulnerabilities and improvement in the quality of life for all, and she is internationally recognized fo r her innovative approaches to savings groups development through public sector, private sector, and traditional leader mechanisms. She currently serves on the Board of SaveNet in Zambia as chairperson of the resource mobilization sub committee. She is also current chairperson for Zambia's National Financial Inclusion Strategy financial consumer protection and capabilities working group.
Chipili specializes in development finance with a special focus on informal finance for the financially excluded households, individuals and enterprise. She is a certified financial inclusion expert specialized in Informal Finance, Women's Economic Empowerment, Digital Financial Services and Responsible Finance. She is a strong believer in the power of inclusivity, collaboration, strategic partnerships and economic empowerment for vulnerable groups to achieve meaningful and sustainable development. She works well across all types of people from national leaders to village poor households, using a gentle strategic style to enc our age sustainable engagement.
Prior to joining FSD Zambia, she was a Program Officer for Savings Groups at the World Vision Southern Africa Regional Office, supporting 8 countries in Savings Groups and community finance. There, she supported work with poor rural communities to improve their well being through access to education, health care, value chain development and improved livelihood skills.
Chris Nicoletti leads iDE’s global evidence & analytics efforts, focusing his energy on rolling out the at-scale use of dynamic custom-built ICT solutions across the portfolio of iDE’s interventions to overcome operational challenges and catalyze existing business models and market facilitation programs – spanning agriculture, WASH, women’s empowerment, nutrition, food security and climate-change adaptation and resilience programs. In addition, Chris brings a wealth of impact evaluation experience in researching market-based agricultural development and the impacts of irrigation, improved agricultural extension and field training on household welfare and crop production, as well as the public-health effects of municipal and rural water and sanitation infrastructure. Chris has an established background in designing and carrying out randomized, quasi-experimental and model-based impact evaluations, as well as rigorous operational research. In addition, he is well-versed in indicator development, database management, mobile tool design and development and data-collection oversight. He brings experience working on USAID, DFAT, DFID, World Bank, GAC, Sida, SDC, NZAid, Stone Family Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and MCC-funded programs in Central America, Africa and Asia – among others. Chris is an effective manager, enthusiastic and passionate public speaker and teaches graduate-level courses on Analysis of Food Systems and Impact Evaluation at the University of Colorado. He received his BS in 2008 in Economics and Psychology from Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon and in 2011 he completed his MS in Agricultural and Resource Economics from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. He enjoys skiing, climbing, cycling and traveling, while residing in Boulder, CO.
Aisha Rahamatali currently serves as CARE Senior Advisor, Women's Economic Justice, leading CARE's engagement in the UN Gender Equality Forum, including leading the Action Coalition for Economic Justice and Rights. Aisha also serves as the lead on CARE's partnership with the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, supporting the integration of savings groups and gender transformative approaches in regulation and practice. Since joining CARE in 2011, Aisha has held a range of roles including Regional Advocacy Coordinator in West Africa and Advocacy Officer with the CARE International Secretariate. Her work has been instrumental to CARE's efforts to scale Savings Groups through integration with government programs and to broaden savings groups networks as platform for women's collective action. With a particular focus on West Africa, Aisha has a track record of building strong relationships with governments, regional institutions, and women's rights organisations to advance the adoption of progressive, gender sensitive policies across the financial, social protection and gender spheres. Aisha is the co author of the SEEP State of Practice Report on Savings Groups and the Role of Government in Sub Saharan Africa and served as co facilitator of the SEEP Peer Learning Group on the Role of Savings Groups in Supporting Graduation from Social Safety Nets. Prior to joining CARE, Aisha worked on child rights and women rights advocacy with several N GOs ( Defence for Children International, International Federation for Human Rights and the International Catholic Child Bureau). She also advocated for the promotion and protection of Women's Rights as part of the team of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women.
Alex joined SEEP in 2019 as Executive Director. In this capacity, he supports SEEP’s committed and talented team in the execution of programs and initiatives, keeping focus on innovation and transformation of the SEEP Network, building on its proud history and current work.
Prior to joining SEEP, Alex served as the Chief Innovation Officer at CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation, a 6000+ global network of civil society organizations and activists. He led key initiatives at the intersection of data, technology, and civil society advocacy and strengthening. Prior to this, Alex worked at Counterpart International, where he held a variety of leadership positions for more than a decade, including overseeing the organization’s $60-million programs portfolio in more than 25 countries, partnering with 3,400 organizations, as its Vice President of Programmes.
Born in Iran, he and his family have benefited first-hand from the important role citizen action and community organizations play in improving lives especially at times of crisis. Alex spent a good part of his adult life in Armenia—his ancestral homeland—where he worked with and learned from local leaders as they forged a new path after independence from the Soviet Union. He is passionate about figuring out how human beings can have a louder, more powerful voice and unhindered agency in what happens to their lives and in their communities; he firmly believes to never ask for permission when what’s at stake is ensuring human dignity.
Diksha Singh is an international development professional with over 10 years of experience in leading learning and outreach programs.
Trained as a researcher, Diksha is passionate about connecting the dots between research, policy and impact through the power of storytelling and creativity.
Diksha currently anchors LEAD at Krea University's learning and communications portfolio. In this role, she works closely with program teams and partners to develop learning outputs, oversees knowledge-sharing events, and digital and offline communication. In the past year, she has successfully guided LEAD's transition to its new brand identity, while ensuring sustained growth in digital outreach. She has also established a structured learning agenda to streamline knowledge management and generation across projects.
Diksha also supports outreach and communication for LEAD's flagship gender program Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She was previously engaged in organising stakeholder convenings and policy dialogues, and provided policy inputs to the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology the apex governing body for promoting digital payments in India, as part of a USAID funded program Catalyst. Her previous stints in development include assignments with nonprofits Praja Foundation and Akshara Centre, in the domain of research and qualitative assessments.
Prior to her foray in international development, Diksha worked as an analyst with the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy India's leading business intelligence company. She was engaged in data cleaning and analysis for a database of socio-economic indicators on tates of India, and contributed analytical pieces to the monthly States of India magazine.
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