Pan African Financing for Development Institute’s (PAFDI) technical team combines passion for sustainable development, with sound investment and monitoring and evaluation skills. PAFDI experts include seasoned and young economists, statisticians, social scientists, data analysts, management consultants and specialists in areas of finance and investment, public-private partnerships, results-based management, strategic planning, impact measurement, economic modelling, participatory research methodologies, capacity-building and organisational transformation.
Prof. Neissan Besharati is an adjunct professor (sustainability) at the Gordon Institute of Business School of the University of Pretoria and a senior technical advisor to the AUDA-NEPAD Policy Bridge Tank. He holds a Master’s in International Social Development (UNSW, Australia) and a PhD in Public Policy & Development Management (Wits, South Africa) with specialisation in impact measures and monitoring and evaluation systems. He is a senior research associate at several prominent development think-tanks an international universities, including the UN Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Development and the Centres for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR). With over 20 years of experience as a seasoned consultant, Dr. Besharati has worked with multinational firms (EY, Deloitte, PWC, Anglo American) and served as a senior advisor to governments, philanthropies (Gates & Rockefeller Foundation), non-profit organisations, development finance institutions, international and regional organisations. He is a renowned evaluator having conducted some of the most sophisticated impact assessments for large private investors in Africa. He currently sits on various United Nations, World Bank, African Union and OECD expert groups and committees. He is a globally respected thought leader and has published extensively in areas of sustainable development, ESG, innovative development finance, public-private partnerships, impact/social investing, emerging markets, monitoring and evaluation, illicit financial flows, and international development cooperation.
Ms Mashadi Monaledi holds an Honours in Social Sciences (University of Cape Town, South Africa) and Master’s in Development and Management (North-West University, South Africa). She has been a practicing sustainability practitioner for 13 years and currently runs her own consultancy. Ms Monaledi has worked with mining corporations (Aquila Steel, Glencore, Kudumane Manganese Resources). She has also worked with consulting companies, including; Metago Environmental Engineers, Synergistics Environmental Services, EXM Advisory Services as well as non-profit organisations, most notably, Afrika Tikkun and Infinite Family. She has expertise in Socio-Economic Development, Corporate Social Investment, Social and Labour Planning & Implementation, Social Impact Assessments, Stakeholder Engagement, Public Participation, and Transformation. She currently sits on the Board of Association of Private Providers of Education, Training and Development (APPETD).
Dr Ted Jackson is a university professor and management consultant specializing in impact management and measurement and ecosystem-building in impact investing, blended finance and gender lens investing in emerging markets in Africa, Asia and the Americas. He has advised the development cooperation programs of Australia, Canada, Denmark and the United Kingdom, the Mastercard and Rockefeller foundations, the Caribbean Development Bank, Emerging Markets Impact Investment Fund, German Institute for Development Evaluation, International Development Research Centre, Investing in Women, World Bank, United Nations Environment Program, and UN Women. A former tenured public-policy professor and associate dean at Carleton University, Dr. Jackson currently serves as Senior Fellow at the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, Honorary Associate with the Institute of Development Studies, and President of E. T. Jackson and Associates Ltd. He also serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment and member of the Council of the International Evaluation Academy. His recent publications include Evaluating Blended Finance Instruments and Mechanisms, an OECD working paper, and Measuring Women’s Job Quality, for the Overseas Development Institute. Originally trained in adult education and community development at the University of Toronto, Dr. Jackson earned certification as a responsible investment professional (RIPC) from UNPRI and Canada’s Responsible Investment Association.
Ms Nici Palmer has over twenty years of experience in environmental consulting, with a focus during the last decade on the carbon sector and climate change. She co-founded Carbon Calculated in 2008 on the realisation that organisations can manage their environmental impact through the measurement of their consumption and carbon footprint calculations. Since then, she has conducted over one hundred carbon footprint assessments for a wide variety of large and small companies from multiple sectors across South Africa and internationally. She facilitates discussions within organisations, providing insight and support within this complex field with a strategic focus to move clients towards a climate neutral environment. Her experience ranges from carbon reporting and management, partnership building and a comprehensive environmental knowledge particularly around climate change and broader sustainability and ESG. An experienced trainer of Environmental Controlling Officers, Ms Palmer has prepared environmental management projects including Basic Assessment Reports and Environmental Impact Assessments. She completed a BSc Honours at the University of Cape Town in Environmental and Geographical Science and Ocean and Atmospheric Science.
Ms Fudu- Cenenda is Director: Enterprise Development at Avocado vision where she focuses on development of rural entrepreneurs in the green business value chain and township property entrepreneurs. Her previous role as Enterprise development Manager at Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, an Incubation hub for tech and digital startups in Johannesburg owned by Wits university saw her focusing on the digital innovations, including Software, hardware and digital content. She also sat on Investment committees at Wits Commercial Enterprise, making decisions on funding needs for commercialising research and inventions from the university. Her own consultancy specialises in Business Development Services, and Monitoring and Evaluation, particularly for Entrepreneurial and Social Entrepreneurship ventures, as well as ESG. She has vast experience as an investment consultant to pension funds, an international human rights advocate and business development support services to entrepreneurs. Some career highlights include impact analysis done on a women’s entrepreneurship programme in Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia as well as coaching women entrepreneurs in South Africa on behalf of the Graça Machel Trust, as well as a digital transformation programme for women entrepreneurs in South Africa. She holds a B Econ (honours) from Rhodes University and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Management Sciences with the Durban University of Technology, where she is undertaking research on “Gender Balancing strategies for the workplace”. She also holds an Impact Investing certificate from UCT Graduate School of Business and is also an accredited Practitioner-Led Learning Exchange (UK) facilitator in Impact evaluation with the Social Enterprise Academy.
Dr. Naomi Isabirye is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she teaches Information Systems Management, Cyber security and User experience. She is also serves as an honorary research associate for Rhodes University (South Africa) in the Information Systems Department, and is involved in research on the Future of Work with the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Applied Data Science. She supervises Masters and Doctoral students while actively building her research publication profile and serving on various committees. Prior to her current role, she was the Head of Information and Communication Technology at OPECS, defining the IT strategy of the organisation and oversee its implementation, security, privacy and compliance for information assets. Naomi hods a PhD in information Technology, A Masters in Information Systems and a BSc in Information technology.
Dr. Linda Khumalo holds a PhD in Development Studies (University of Witwatersrand) and a Master’s in Industrial Sociology and Labour Studies (University of Pretoria). She is a social researcher with over seven years of hands-on experience conducting monitoring, evaluation, learning (MEL) and policy analysis. She has successfully facilitated evaluation capacity building workshops and actively collaborated on projects developing M&E systems such as with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), seeking to enhance organisational performance management. She has previously worked for the African Centres for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR), where she facilitated workshops for stakeholders in results-based M&E, parliamentary oversight and advocated for the use of evidence for greater development outcomes. Dr Khumalo has worked in evaluation and performance improvement of development projects and has led social sector evaluations as an independent consultant and through her association with Masazi Development Associates, Secure Africa Consulting and Pan-African Investment and Research Services.
Ms Gifty Volimkarime Kuug holds an MBA, Certificates from Oxford University (UK), Illinois State University and Harvard Graduate School of Education (USA). She brings over two decades of experience as practitioner in international and humanitarian programmes in areas of youth development, entrepreneurship, sustainable livelihoods, gender, monitoring and evaluation, and human right based initiatives. Ms Kuug is the Project Director for Inclusive Business Sweden – Green Economy Ghana Project and a consulting Country Representative for Crossroads International. Prior to this she was the Country Manager for the EQWIP Hubs Project, where she managed the consortium to build sustainable youth businesses in Ghana, in six countries in West and East Africa and three regions in Ghana. Ms Kuug is the founder of CEED, an entrepreneurship research and data hub, where she serves as a director. She is also a foundering member of Impact Investing Ghana and represents CEED at the Impact Investing Ghana Enterprise Support Organisations Technical working group. She has worked in communities and with organisations in Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda Zimbabwe, and Cameroon, and with a vast range of development finance institutions. Ms Kuug is a mentor with FP2020, Youth Power Africa Transformation Award challenge and a member of the Oxford Impact Measurement Liber consulting work Group.
Ms Sitholindlela Mavengere is an Independent Consultancy with extensive experience in social research and evaluation. She is particularly experienced in research and evaluation design and methodology development. She has experience on various projects including education, health, and food and nutrition security for government and private funders. She designed, developed, implemented, and managed or provided technical assistance to the management of the monitoring and evaluation for South African government, non-governmental organisations, and private sector. She has proven experience in the management of research and evaluation projects which include database management of consultants and fieldworkers, research logistics and arrangement of field work. She is also experienced in the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation methods and report writing. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies, a Postgraduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation, and a Master of Philosophy in Monitoring and Evaluation. Currently undertaking PhD at the University of Pretoria in Quality Assurance in Education and Training.
Ms Alicia Paramanund has attained a Master’s degree in Environmental Law (LLM) through the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and a BSc Hons. in Environmental Management through UNISA. Having worked mainly in the renewable energy sector for over 13 years, she specialises in environmental management with a key focus on renewable energy projects and sustainable development. Ms Paramanund has worked as an environmental assessment practitioner (EAP) for over 7 years, having led and been involved in an extensive list of environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes for various projects. She also worked as environmental; business development; and bid led for several Independent Power Producers (IPPs). Her areas of expertise include business development; environmental regulations and compliance (Renewable Energy, Power, Infrastructure, Mining, Waste); environmental due diligence; project management; design, execution and management of project permitting processes; bid compliance and management; team management; stakeholder interfaces; policy and legislation advisory.
Ms Raesetje Sefala is an AI Research Fellow and a qualified Data Engineer. She holds a Computer Science Master’s degree from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) with a special focus on Machine Learning. She has been technically involved in different complex Data Science projects from around the world that involve building innovative solutions while working with world renowned researchers in the field (Prof. Yoshua Bengio, Prof. Rayid Ghani and Dr. Timnit Gebru to name a few). Her focus is in the use of artificial intelligence to solve problems experienced by developing countries; creating and analysing datasets for machine learning use; designing and developing efficient machine learning pipelines for different types of datasets, and contributing to making better data and technologies that serve disadvantaged communities.
Ms Sankari Reddy is a special advisor at the International Fund for Agricultural Development. She was a practicing attorney in both South Africa and Botswana for more than a decade. She holds a MSc in Comparative Law, Economics and Finance (cum laude) (Italy), a Bachelor’s of Commerce (Pretoria), a Bachelors of Law (Pretoria) and an Advanced Professional Diploma in International Taxation (APCIT) (Netherlands) and qualifications from the Chartered Governance Institute of South Africa (CGISA). She has acted for clients in a variety of sectors (including REIPP, property, retail, advertising and marketing) involving government, tax authorities, shareholders, employee and DFI disputes. Her areas of focus include King IV, companies law and administrative law. She has conducted impact and evaluation research work with FAO as well as PLAAS (University of Pretoria) and served as legal associate at Pan-African Investment and Research Services (PAIRS) working on illicit financial flows and ESG projects. She is a member of SABWiL (South African Black Women in Law), and the Institute of New Economic Thinking (INET) and has published on the impacts of COVID-19 on surveillance and compliance in South Africa.
Ms Pamela Nyikavaranda holds a BSc Honours Degree in Economics from the University of Zimbabwe as well as a postgraduate diploma and a Master’s Degree in M&E from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. She has 12 successful years of consulting experience in rolling out, coordinating, managing, monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects of various nature. She further possesses vast experience in capacity building development in M&E on Southern African regional forums. She is currently the M&E Consultant for SADC PF on a 5year SRHR programme being implemented in 14 SADC countries. She developed a three year Organisational M&E Plan for Southern Africa Trust for their various programmes implemented within Southern Africa. She is an experienced Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist who has both the qualifications and experience in diagnostics, process, design and impact evaluations as well as building monitoring and evaluation systems for both local and international projects. She is currently one of the M&E Specialist behind the South African DSD Design Evaluation for the Food Parcel Project. She has been an M&E Assessor for Mott MacDonald International Development SA on the YOLO USAID funded programme providing advisory services on interpretation of the Results Framework and Theory of Change to the various NPOs who were mandated to implement the project.
Ms Seedat holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Development Finance and an MBA specialising in Managing International Organisations from the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa). She has worked in the ESG and impact investment advisory space for 12 years and is currently Executive Director at the Instructional Leadership Institute. She was previously the Director of Risk, Compliance and Special Initiatives for a technology company working on large-scale public health projects. She previously managed a development consultancy group (Greater Capital and Greater Impact) and has consulted for local and international development agencies, including: AMSCO BV, ATMS Foundation, UNDP, Impact@Africa, Stellenbosch University and SAB-ABInBev Foundation. In addition, she is a lecturer on Strategy Management and Leadership Development for MBA and postgraduate students at Stellenbosch University Business School. She has expertise in sustainable development, corporate social investment, impact investing, ESG integration, social impact assessments, and policy development. She currently sits on the Boards of Impact@Africa and the Stellenbosch University Business School Executive Committee of their Alumni Association. She serves on the Steering Committee Member of the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE).
Ms Nthabiseng Tsaonamatsie is the Senior Economist and Head of Research at Pan-African Investment and Research Services (Pty) Ltd responsible for conducting and overseeing commissioned research, and on-going macro-economic analysis for clients. Prior to this she worked at the Human Sciences Research Council as an economic researcher in the Economic Performance and Development unit. Her research interests are growth and development economics, and inequality and growth, as well as panel-data econometrics. While at University of Pretoria she was a lecturer assistant as well as a research assistant.