1st Congress of African Professionals |
||
|
| ||
SPECIAL ONE-DAY TRAINING PROGRAMME ON
|
Congress Speakers |
|
The following plenary speakers have been confirmed for the congress. Click herehere to know about other congress presenters.
 Firoze Manji Firoze Manji, a Kenyan with more than 30 years experience in international development, health and human rights, is founding Executive Director of Fahamu – Networks for Social Justice, a pan African organisation with bases in Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and the UK. He is editor in chief of the prize-winning pan African social justice newsletter and website Pambazuka News, produced by a pan-African community of more than 1500 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators, with a readership estimated at around 500,000 (www.pambazuka.org). He has previously worked as Regional Representative for Health Sciences in Eastern and Southern Africa for the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Nairobi; Chief Executive of the Aga Khan Foundation (UK); and Africa Programme Director for Amnesty International. He has published widely on health, social policy, human rights and political sciences, and authored a wide range of books on social justice in Africa, including on women’s rights, trade and on China’s role in Africa. He is a member of the editorial board of “Development in Practice”, a member of the steering group on the campaign for the ratification of the protocol on the rights of women in Africa (Solidarity for African Women’s Rights), and is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy, Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is currently Visiting Fellow in International Human Rights at Kellogg College, University of Oxford. He holds a PhD and MSc from the University of London, and a BDS from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.  Tobias Eigen Tobias Eigen is the founder and executive director of Kabissa - Space for Change in Africa, a network of over 1300 African civil society organizations and also Senior Steward - IT of Global Action Networks-Net, whose mission is to strengthen the capacity of multi-sector, global networks to address urgent sustainability issues - social, economic, and environmental. He holds a BS in German and African studies (1994) from Georgetown University and an MA in Culture, Race and Difference (1997) from the University of Sussex. He started describing himself as an "Internet in Africa specialist" early on, when he discovered that his love of Africa and keen interest in electronic communications could fit so neatly together in one career. His first Internet in Africa job, which he took in 1992 while still an undergraduate student in German and African Studies at Georgetown University, was to create and maintain a private store and forward email network for the USAID Famine Early Warning System Project, a project with more than a dozen field offices throughout the Sahel region of Africa collaborating on early warning bulletins. He went from there to providing consulting services to development projects for Africare, Volunteers in Technical Assistance and a number of other international agencies working in Africa. In the early 1990s he helped his father, Peter Eigen, develop an e-mail communication network and Internet strategy for his fledgling organization which would become Transparency International, a powerful international anti-corruption movement. After a two-year stint at Oneworld.net from 1998-2000 and a particularly transformative IT consulting project he did with human rights organizations in Nigeria, He founded Kabissa in November 1999.  Vikas Nath Vikas Nath is the founder of Intellectual Network for the South (INSouth) http://www.insouth.org; Digital Governance http://www.digitalgovernance.org; DevNetJobs Global Network http://www.devnetjobs.org; and KnowNet Initiative http://www.knownet.org. He has organisational work experience in the following areas and places: South Centre (Geneva), United Nations Development Programme - UNDP (New York), Ministry of Environment & Forests (Government of India, Delhi), Action Aid (Bangalore, India), Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (Gujarat, India) He has global consulting and projects experience in over 45 countries, including in World Information Technology Forum - WITFOR (Vietnam, Ethiopia, Botswana); Fahamu/Pambazuka (UK), International Fund for Agricultural Development - IFAD / Centre for International Forestry Research - CIFOR (India, Rome); IFAD / ENRAP (Laos, Philippines, Sri Lanka, India); IFAD / KariaNet (Egypt, Jordan, Rome); UNDP (Azerbaijan, Croatia, Estonia, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstgan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Tunisia, New York); UNDP / Bratislava Regional Centre (Ukraine); UNDP / Digital Development Initiative (Uzbekistan); United Nations Volunteer - UNV (Mongolia, Egypt, Bonn); Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (Ghana, Uganda); Soros Foundation (Kyrgyzstan); Sir Ratan Tata Trust (Uttranchal, Jharkand, Gujarat - India); United Nations Conference on Trade and Development - UNCTAD (Geneva); World Bank / Global Development Network (Japan, Washington, DC); World Computer Exchange (USA, India); Ambuja Development Foundation (Gujarat - India); Agricultural Finance Consultants (Rajasthan - India); CHIRAG (Uttar Pradesh - India) and Forest Department (Madhya Pradesh - India). He has MSc in Environment and Development from London School of Economics, UK; MSc in Natural Resources Management and Forestry from Indian Institute of Forest Management, India; BSc in Mathematics from St. Stephens College, Delhi University, India He is specialsed in Global Development Challenges and Alternative Approaches; Development Cooperation and South-South Cooperation; Natural Resources Management and Rural Development; E-Government, E-Governance, Public Sector Modernisation; Provision and Financing of Global Public Goods; and IT for Development.  Anna Bonn Anna Bonn is a Senior Consultant working with the Centre for International Cooperation. Her areas of expertise are ICT, Globalization and Development; Internet in higher education in Africa; ICT Strategy and Planning; Innovative Systems in research and education; ICT Infrastructure; Business development in ICT; and Project management, monitoring and evaluation. She has been involved in the following developmental projects: Ghana – Managerial Leadership Capacity, MA Programme, and Strengthening ICT Education; Colombia – Institutional Strengthening of ESAP. She currently has four publications to her credit, including 'Can internet in tertiary education in Africa contribute to social and economic development?'; 'ICTs in Tertiary Education: A case study from Ghana; 'Timing of Variscan mid-crustal shearing and batholith intrusion in the Central Pyrenees (Ariège, France). Geologie en Mijnbouw 73, 53-61.  Yash Tandon Yash Tandon was appointed by the Board of the South Centre to serve as the Executive Director of the South Centre Secretariat in Geneva beginning on 1 January 2005. He has taught at several universities in Africa including Makerere in Uganda and the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He is also a founding member and was the first Director of the International South Group Network (ISGN). ISGN has centers in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, the Philippines, and Nicaragua. It seeks to raise issues of common concern to countries that were formerly under colonial rule, such as development, trade, aid, debt, human rights, gender relations, conflict resolution, and the environment. Professor Tandon was also a founder and director of the Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Initiative (SEATINI). SEATINI seeks to build the capacity of African trade negotiators to better negotiate in the World Trade Organization for a fair, equitable and balanced system of international trade. Professor Tandon has written extensively on matters related to African economy and international relations. He specializes in political economy and Foreign Direct Investments.  Dorothy Gordon Dorothy K. Gordon is the Director-General of Ghana's Advanced Information Technology Institute (AITI-KACE). She leads a team committed to using the opportunities that exist within the global innovation economy to bring about accelerated development in Africa. AITI provides globally benchmarked IT training; works to create the right environment to stimulate context-responsive ICT R&D and provides consulting services to support clients in achieving global quality standards. A strong network of global partnerships and local networks support AITI's work in diverse areas ranging from digital inclusion projects at the community level through to climate-modelling using high-performance computing resources. Her work as a specialist in international development spans over 20 years with increasing leadership and management responsibilities. Her extensive experience within the United Nations is complemented by work in the private sector and with civil society organisations globally. She is Co-Chair of the Commission on E-Government for the World IT Forum (WITFOR), President of the Ipv6 Forum Ghana, Africa Spokesperson for the World Summit Awards, Director, UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA) as well as a member of the Champions network of the UNGAID - UN Global Alliance on ICT for Development. The present direction of her work relates to how best ICT can be owned by developing countries. Capacity- building must set a sound foundation for innovation and cutting-edge research both to improve overall competitiveness as well as identify solutions for survival. She holds degrees from the University of Ghana and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) of the University of Sussex, UK.
|
Partners and Sponsors of the Congress   |
