Kgauta Mokoena works at AfDB’s department of forestry, fisheries and the environment. Previously he worked as director of mine environmental research and sustainable development. He is a member of the Minerals and Petroleum Board and chair of the working group on built environment at the Africa Circular Economy Alliance (ACEA). Mokoena is a circular economy expert who participated in the circular economy mission in Europe led by the South African Presidency in 2019. He holds a BSc in environmental hydrology and soil science and a bachelor of laws (LLB) from the University of South Africa and a masters’ of social science in policy and development studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He also represents South Africa as the co-chair of ACEA and is a member of PAGE and Global Alliance on Circular Economy and Resource Economy (GACERE).
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Davinah Milenge Uwella
Principal Programme Coordinator
African Development Bank (AfDB)
Davinah coordinates several initiatives on climate change within the Climate Change and Green Growth Department of the bank, including the secretariat for the Africa Circular Economy Facility (ACEF). Other initiatives include: the Africa Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Hub, a platform hosted at AfDB to support African countries implement their Paris Agreement climate commitments; and the secretariat of the African Financial Alliance on Climate Change (AFAC), an initiative launched by AfDB to mobilise, catalyse and leverage domestic climate finance. Davinah also manages portfolio due diligence for the bank’s green bonds programme. She holds an MA in economics from University of Manchester, UK.
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Harsen Nyambe
Director for Sustainable Environment and Blue Economy
African Union Commission (AUC)
Prior to his current position, Harsen Nyambe served as head of division responsible for environment, climate change, water, biodiversity, disaster risk reduction, forestry, land management, meteorology and wildlife. He has 25 years’ professional experience of which 18 years has been in international organisations. Before joining the AUC, he served the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as a senior programme manager responsible for natural resources and the Commonwealth Secretariat as head of climate change. Nyambe has also worked for the government of the Republic of Namibia as a deputy director in the ministry of environment and tourism and in the ministry of agriculture, water and forestry. Furthermore, he was also head of the National Remote Sensing Centre of Namibia and prior to that a lecturer for environmental impact assessment and ecology at the University of Namibia. His passion lies in fostering sustainable natural resources management and building resilience to environmental shocks.
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Beatrice Cyiza
Director General of Environment and Climate Change
Ministry of Environment, Rwanda
Beatrice Cyiza is a committed environmental expert with over 15 years’ experience in environment management. She coordinates the ministry’s policy development and stakeholder engagement and steers the development of strategies and plans while ensuring the mainstreaming and compliance with key policy actions. In her role, she promotes research and studies that are instrumental in advancing policy implementation and facilitating the sharing of best practices. As an administrative coordinator for academic affairs, extension and applied research at the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture from 2018 to 2021, she contributed to the development of institutional policies, action plans and faculty development strategies. As an environmental audit and monitoring officer and the Nagoya protocol focal point at the Rwanda Environment Management Authority, she developed a number of audit check lists for key sectors and developed environmental audit reporting tools. Beatrice has dual master's degrees in biodiversity conservation and in disaster risk management and climate change governance.
To support Pawanka Fund’s mission, Edna Kaptoyo applies over 15 years’ experience in non-profit organisations working in social development and Indigenous peoples rights practice and policy advocacy. She is experienced in local, regional and global external engagement in the development sector, with specific focus on climate change and environment programming and policy, Agenda 2030, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and project implementation. Edna currently serves as the global grant making and partnerships officer at Pawanka Fund, a global Indigenous led fund. She is also the main representative for Africa Indigenous peoples in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP) facilitative working group, which is an inclusive space that brings together people and their knowledge systems to build a climate resilient world.
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Al-Hamndou Dorsouma
Division Manager, Climate Change and Green Growth
The African Development Bank (AfDB)
Al-Hamndou Dorsouma leads AfDB’s efforts on climate change in Africa, including building climate resilience and low carbon opportunities into the bank’s investments, and supporting the bank’s engagement on the circular economy as a strategy for climate resilience and green growth. Dr Dorsouma’s academic background is in geography and environmental management. He also worked for other international organisations, namely the Observatory of Sahara and Sahel (OSS) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Eddy Kioni is the CEO of a newly established innovative integrated metals trading company in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), dedicated to enhancing the global supply chains of critical minerals through value-added services. At the forefront of Buenassa's ambitious endeavours is a pioneering project: the establishment of a climate-smart mining-oriented copper and cobalt refinery, aligning with the DRC's goals for mineral beneficiation and sustainable socio-economic development. His leadership is pivotal in driving Buenassa towards impactful contributions to the mineral sector. Eddy's extensive experience spans both the private and public sectors, as he has also held influential consultancy roles and management positions in government ministries and state-controlled companies.
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Oliver Boachie
Special Advisor to the Minister
Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation, Ghana
In his position, Oliver Boachie is coordinating Ghana’s transition to the circular economy and facilitating collaboration among stakeholders within government, academia and the private sector, to develop policies for sustainable management of the environment. He is Ghana’s National Focal Point for the Inter-governmental Negotiation Committee (INC) of the Global Treaty on Plastics Pollution, and he is co-author of the proposal for a Global Plastics Pollution Fee (GPPF) as a means of implementation provision in the current draft of the Global Plastics Treaty.
Jack Kimani is the founder of CAP-A, a novel platform of initiatives focusing on climate action opportunities as drivers of economic growth in Africa. He has over 20 years’ corporate finance and development experience working across sub-Saharan Africa, North America and South-East Asia for major multinational organisations. While traveling regularly across the globe, Kimani has mainly been based in Malawi, Rwanda and Kenya for significant periods. He holds an economics degree and is an MBA graduate from the University of Wisconsin.
