Assalama Sidi is a human and women rights activist who has worked tirelessly to promote equality and social justice for the past two decades across West Africa and beyond. She has worked in development areas that include promoting gender and development, lifting up the voices of women and girls in remote areas, girls’ education and protection, youth entrepreneurship, and local civil society organization strengthening. She is also an experienced humanitarian worker who has led various initiatives that focus on food assistance, water access, and protection against gender-based violence in refugee and internally displaced camps in Niger. She has held various leadership positions with the United States Peace Corps and Plan International in different countries. Assalama is currently the Regional Director for Oxfam in West and Central Africa where she provides vision, strategic guidance and support to Oxfam programs in the 12 countries where Oxfam operates in West and Central Africa. Assalama graduated from the University of Niamey with a degree in Sociology and has earned many certificates in leadership, including a certificate in Management from Harvard Business School. She is fluent in six languages.

Alice Macharia channels her insights and passion with a purpose of improving people’s lives and protecting the planet we call home. In her role as the Vice-President of Africa Programs with the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), Alice leads the implementation of the Africa Programs Strategy, which seeks to conserve chimpanzees across their range while living in peaceful coexistence with their neighboring human communities. Alice has over 15 years of progressive experience in project design and implementation, grant administration, and program management of integrated conservation and development programming in Africa. During her career, Alice has championed integration of population, health, and environment and served as an evaluator of the Elinor Ostrom Award on Collective Governance of the Commons. Alice has an MA in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University, an MA in Geography from Miami University, and a BS in Geography from the University of Nairobi.

Dr. Abiba Longwe-Ngwira is a social scientist with vast multidisciplinary experience in policy-oriented research, evaluation, knowledge translation, capacity building, and monitoring and evaluation. She serves as the Director of Monitoring, Evaluation and Research for the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH). Abiba has more than 10 years of experience in policy-oriented research focusing on the linkages between reproductive health investments, poverty alleviation, and socio-economic development in Africa. Abiba has worked on public health evaluation projects on HIV/AIDS, TB, and TB/HIV co-infection. She has also worked in the agricultural sector on donor-funded projects aimed at alleviating poverty, mitigating climate change, and improving the livelihoods of the rural population in Malawi. Abiba is an alum of Population Reference Bureau’s Policy Communication Fellows Program. She holds a PhD in Management Sciences (Development Economics), a MS in Rural Development, and a MS and BS in Agricultural Economics.