Seife Ayele is a development economist with over 20 years' experience in research, teaching and development practice, mainly in Africa and Asia. His work focuses on agricultural innovations and development, technology access and adoption, biotech crops regulation, and enterprise development. He is currently a Fellow in the Business, Markets and the State Cluster at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). Prior to joining IDS, he directed programmes in Ethiopia providing access to and adoption of improved agricultural technologies by smallholder farmers. He was a Research Scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, and a Research Fellow at the Open University, UK.
Bernard Bett is a Senior Veterinary Epidemiologist currently working with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi. His research interests focus on identifying drivers for zoonotic diseases and effective ways of controlling them. He also works with local and international institutions to train local veterinarians on a wide range of epidemiological techniques including risk analysis, risk mapping and mathematical modelling. He completed his PhD studies at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and the University of Guelph, Canada.
Salome Bukachi is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Anthropology, Gender and African Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya. She has a PhD in Medical Anthropology, with over 16 years' experience in teaching and research on socioeconomic and behavioural aspects in human and livestock health, including addressing community participation and gender issues on the same. She consults widely as well as providing technical backstopping on social aspects of infectious diseases for both local and international organisations such as the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, Malteser International, the African Union, the World Food Programme and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) among others.
Benson Estambale is Professor of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST), Kenya. He has been involved in various health research activities of public health importance including epidemiology and control of HIV/AIDS, malaria, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, soil-transmitted helminths and other climate-sensitive vector-borne diseases such as Rift Valley fever. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the World Health Organization (WHO)/ International Development Research Centre (IDRC)-funded project on Population Health Vulnerabilities to Vector-Borne Diseases in Kenya.
Eyob Balcha Gebremariam is a PhD researcher at the Global Development Institute (GDI) at the University of Manchester, UK, and a Matasa Fellow. His PhD research broadly focuses on the politics of development and state–citizen interactions in Ethiopia. The study specifically analyses different state and youth initiatives in Addis Ababa to examine their role in shaping developmental aspirations of the state and state–youth citizenship interactions. Eyob previously worked as a civil society activist facilitating African citizens' and civil society organisations' interaction with the African Union and Regional Economic Communities decision-making processes.
Samir Khan is Senior Manager, Research Policy and Communications at The MasterCard Foundation, Toronto, Canada. Previously, he spent almost ten years working in public opinion research, with a particular expertise in public health marketing and youth political participation. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and is currently a candidate for the Executive Master of Public Administration at the London School of Economics.
Nicholas Kilimani is a Lecturer in the Department of Policy and Development Economics at the College of Business and Management Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and a Matasa Fellow. He completed his PhD in 2016 at the University of Pretoria. His research interests are in the areas of environment and development economics in a developing country context. He previously worked at the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC), a leading policy research thinktank in Uganda. He has provided technical support to government and non-government organisations, within and outside of Uganda.
Monica Lambon-Quayefio is a Lecturer and researcher at the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana, and a Matasa Fellow. Her work focuses broadly on human development, with a particular focus on child health, women's empowerment as well as migration and labour issues in Africa. She completed her PhD in 2014 in Economics at Clark University, Massachusetts, USA after her Bachelor's degree at the University of Ghana in 2006.
Jacqueline Halima Mgumia is an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and a Matasa Fellow. She is currently finalising her PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where her thesis is on youth and entrepreneurship in Tanzania. Jacqueline is interested in researching family relations and the working conditions of women and men from a feminist perspective, and particularly the intersections between youth, state intervention, development programmes and everyday lives.
Edna Mutua is a Graduate Fellow with the Food Safety and Zoonoses Team at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, and a Matasa Fellow. She is also a final year PhD student of anthropology at the Institute of Anthropology, Gender and African Studies of the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Edna has a keen interest in intersections between gender and agriculture, and previously worked in a project that evaluated the impacts of livestock value chains and microcredit programmes on women's empowerment.
Grace Muthoni Mwaura is a non-residential Research Fellow with the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), Nairobi, and a Matasa Fellow. She completed her PhD in 2015 in Geography and the Environment at Oxford University. Her doctoral research investigated youth aspirations and subjectivities in the context of prevailing socioeconomic uncertainties, agricultural development and environmental change. Grace has eight years' experience of working with young people in different fields including climate change, education, conservation, intergenerational partnerships and leadership programmes across Africa and internationally. Her current research interests are in youth livelihoods and agency, inclusive development, and policy and governance.
Victoria Flavia Namuggala is a Lecturer at the School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and a Matasa Fellow. She recently completed her PhD in Women and Gender Studies at the School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University, USA. Her research interests centre on the multiple intersecting forms of oppression and privilege experienced in situations of forced displacement associated with armed violence. Specifically, she examines violence in relation to youthhood and unemployment drawing on northern Uganda, a region that has experienced over two decades of armed violence. Her research largely draws on feminist and indigenous epistemologies.
Isaac Nyamongo is a Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of Nairobi. He has 30 years of teaching and research experience and has worked as a consultant with many organisations including WHO, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF), the African Union and the World Bank among others. He has published scholarly books and peer-reviewed papers in reputable journals.
Ayodele Ibrahim Shittu is a Lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Lagos, Nigeria, and a Matasa Fellow. He received a BSc and MSc degree in Economics from the University of Lagos and completed his PhD in 2014 at Soochow University, Suzhou, China. Ayodele specialises in the economics of entrepreneurship and innovation, and his research interests include entrepreneurial intentions and innovation competency building among adolescents, financial system innovations and university–industry collaborations. He is an active member of the African Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems (AfricaLics).
Maurice Sikenyi is a PhD candidate in both Comparative and International Development Education, and Development Studies and Social Change at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA, and a Matasa Fellow. His thesis is on higher education and peace-building in Kenya. He has experience in international development, education, and peace-building, having worked in various capacities in project management, research design and implementation, capacity building, and programme evaluation. At the University of Minnesota, Maurice has served as a Lead Project Fellow for a longitudinal multinational evaluation on youth livelihoods in East Africa.
James Sumberg has been a Research Fellow at IDS since 2009 and leads the Rural Futures Research Cluster. His current research interests include rural young people and employment in Africa, agriculture and rural development policy, and the development implications of ongoing changes to the field of agronomic research. Previously he worked at The New Economics Foundation, the University of East Anglia, WARDA – the Africa Rice Center, the International Livestock Centre for Africa, CARE International and the Gambian Livestock Department.
Thomas Yeboah is an Assistant Research Fellow at the College of Distance Education, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and a Matasa Fellow. He is finalising his PhD in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge, UK, on how young people actively shape, negotiate and challenge their social worlds through rural to urban migration. More broadly, he is interested in youth migration and unemployment issues, microfinance and bottom-up development approaches, as well as analysis and interpretation of policy discourses. Thomas collaborated with the Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) on a Q Methodology study of young people and work in Ghana.