Project Management

Willy has seven years of experience as an environmental activist, specialist in communication for development and social change (C4D), and researcher on inequalities and information poverty. He obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and Marketing and a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science, both at the University of Havana (UH). He also completed a Master’s in Latin American Studies at University College London. He has worked as an advocacy and actor articulation specialist, a C4D officer in international campaigns and projects, and has also been a researcher and data analyst. In addition, Willy has extensive experience in causes such as climate change, land degradation, ecosystem conservation, disaster risk management, and clean energy. Willy is very interested in continuing to work on environmental problems, especially climate change, which strongly affects small island states like his country.

Host Organization: Generation

Role at Host Organization: As the External Relations Fellow, Willy will shadow external relations meetings and activities and begin to play a key supporter role in external relations planning and research. The Fellow will develop expertise in the various tools and measures for these activities. Willy will also work closely with senior staff to develop and execute external communications plans, develop writing skills in creating external content, and shepherd external opportunities (media and/or event) to fruition. The Fellow will understand the global/affiliate model Generation uses, and develop toolkits that can support affiliate communications.

Tafadzwa has six years of experience in the nonprofit sector. He holds an MSc International Relations degree from the University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, and a BSc in Media and Society Studies from the Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. He is a YALI Regional Leadership Center Southern Africa alumnus. Tafadzwa is an Operations Manager at Bayethe Development Institute, an SRHR and economic empowerment organization in Zimbabwe. He is a transformational leader and social change agent who believes in turning his vision into reality through strategic alliances and coordinated action. He is responsible for initiating and developing clear, concise proposals, grant writing, and implementing fundraising activities, donor cultivation, and stewardship. He has managed to raise US$ 800,000 from 2017 to date on advancement of SRHR access for young people, economic empowerment of LBTQI people, and child rights programming. He researches, writes, and edits time-sensitive program documents, budgets, activity reports, and cultivates relationships, including communicating with relevant local partners, stakeholders, and donors. Among the various duties in this portfolio is working in concert with the finance and administration team to oversee grant management, draft budgets, and disbursement of funds, including monitoring budgets and expenditures. Tafadzwa worked for the Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children (ZNCWC), a child rights coordinating and umbrella body in Zimbabwe as an Advocacy and Communications Officer. He organized and coordinated child rights actors and led successful advocacy and lobbying activities, chief among them establishment of the Parliament Caucus on Child Rights in 2020.

Host Organization: One to World

Role at Host Organization: As a Fundraising Fellow, Tafadzwa will help implement strategies to meet the organization’s annual fundraising goals, working closely with One To World’s Executive Director, Director of Development, consultants, and Board of Directors. The Fellow will support all functions of the Development department, including gift processing, management of donor data, special events planning and execution, cultivation and stewardship of donors, and private grant prospecting, writing, and reporting. Tafadzwa is a vital piece of a small team that generates revenue to support the organization’s direct services for K-12 youth and international scholars, and will contribute to meeting a fundraising goal of almost $1 million a year.

Mai has extensive experience in project implementation through her coordination of various projects and her direct work with partners, vendors, refugee communities, and host communities in her former organization, Catholic Rrelief Services, in Egypt. Mai was also a Special Assistant to the Advisor to the Chairperson on strategic relations at the African Union Bureau of the Chairperson as an assignment of her AU Youth Volunteer Corps. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Cairo University in 2016 and is currently enrolled in a Euro-Mediterranean Master program in Cairo University. Furthermore, Mai has four years of experience in the fields of advocacy, program coordination and support. As an advocacy officer at the Egyptian Center for Public Policy Studies, she worked on three projects that focused on the role of nonprofits in development in Egypt, business environment for SMEs, and budget transparency and disclosure. These projects were with multi-level stakeholders. Mai also succeeded in designing and facilitating 15 capacity building trainings for the parliamentarians’ staffers and workshops for young entrepreneurs with Friedreich Numan Foundation. Working on these projects developed her organizational and communication skills since working with different stakeholders on different levels paid off with much experiences in organizing conferences, capacity building, stakeholders meetings, international donors meetings and one to one meetings with government officials and public figures. As programs coordinator at Tahrir Lounge @Goethe institute, Mai was responsible for coordinating cultural programs in which she worked on creative expression for social issues like poverty and gender based violence, which resulted in seven productions of art materials and 10 short movies addressing gender related issues.

Host Organization: Save the Children

Role at Host Organization: As an Advocacy Officer Fellow (Child Rights and Participation), Mai will offer support to the Save the Children New York Advocacy Office (NYAO) in the areas of engaging children and youth to influnce policy and political debate at the United Nations. The Fellow’s role is key to the office’s commitment to ensure the protection and rights of children around the world through strategic engagement in key moments, commissions, resolutions, and for a in the UN space. The Fellow will work alongside NYAO colleagues and UN-based coalitions to secure meaningful participation of children in the UN Space and to inform that issues that disproportionately affect children are clearly addressed in UN outcome documents and resolutions. This role will also work closely with “Shift Power” programme colleagues across Save the Children member, regional and country office colleagues to provide direct support to adolescent and youth from frigate context to participate in global advocacy.

Angela possesses four years of experience in both the nonprofit sector and media space. Currently, she is the Chief Operating Officer at Jela’s Development Initiatives (JDI) where she supervises project implementation, organizational operations and communications. She manages diverse teams to provide access to clean water as well as sanitation and hygiene facilities, mental healthcare, voluntary blood donors through an artificial intelligence called J  Match and promotes youth empowerment through volunteering. Most recently, she co-designed and implemented advocacy campaigns on mental health inclusion for PWDs and voluntary blood donation. She is also a writer and solutions journalist, whose work has explored maternal mortality, anti-corruption, climate change, mental health and food security, amongst other themes. As a World Literacy Foundation Ambassador (2020), she raised awareness on how illiteracy affects daily life by curating 112 ‘literacy stories’ which she shared on social media. Previously, she worked as Media and Communications Officer at Skills Outside School Foundation (SOSF) focusing on securing relevant partnerships and creating publicity for the Foundation’s work in life skill education through digital media and production of media materials. In the time she worked with SOSF, she raised the organization’s profile by increasing social media followership by over 80% and initiated partnership discussions with various organizations. She is certified by the University of California through Philanthropy University in developing Advocacy campaigns. Angela is most interested in improving inclusion in education, good governance and mental healthcare.

Host Organization: Medici Road

Role at Host Organization: As a Communications Analyst Fellow, Angela will assist in shaping, and executing, the audience engagement strategy and she will lead digital storytelling efforts for the organization. The Fellow will work side-by-side with senior staff to gain practical experience learning how to turn data and stories into infographics. Angela will also learn how to use software like Adobe InDesign and Photoshop and practice storytelling and community engagement skills with diverse stakeholder groups including residents and peer organizations.

Baba is an experienced Project management practitioner with specialty in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) systems development. He has over 7 years of experience in leading and supporting project implementation and measurement of results in Social Cohesion, Nutrition and Food Security, Livelihoods and Women Empowerment, Migration, Youth Development, Gender Equality, Agricultural Market Systems, WASH, Education, Sustainable Agriculture, Advocacy with Local and International Nonprofit Organizations. Baba Kankani is experienced in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, using modern ICT4D tools for research and project management; Proposal development, Data visualization with Power BI, LogAlto, and donor reporting. He also has experience in leading and supervising teams to successfully conduct qualitative and quantitative action research in an emergency context. He has worked with international and local humanitarian organizations, including SNV Netherlands Development Organization, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Vibrant Village Foundation (Ghana), Management Systems International (MSI), and Action Aid Ghana where he developed technology-enabled Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) systems using platforms like CommCare, Survey Monkey, LogAlto, ODK, Kobo Toolbox, IFormBuilder, Magpi, PowerBi, GIS, and ArcGIS Pro. Baba Kankani holds a Masters degree(Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation) and Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) from the renowned Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.

Host Organization: Transparency & Accountability Initiative

Role at Host Organization: As a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Fellow, Baba will help implement TAI’s internal MEL system and practices, including data collection and analysis. TAI has an existing MEL system and recurring reflection and learning practices. The Fellow might be requested to consider ways to improve the current MEL approach and assist with the development of any new MEL tools. The Fellow will also support TAI’s learning initiatives, including staff internal reflection sessions, funder member-facing events and/or written products, support to our series of funder dialogues on different aspects of grantmaking practice and light research around TPA-related topics.

Abdulsamod is a communications and marketing professional with over six years of experience leading end-to-end content storytelling and digital marketing (search, social and email) campaigns in the nonprofit, financial services, venture capital and technology sectors in Africa. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, and is trained in product marketing and growth marketing by Product Marketing Alliance UK and CXL Institute US respectively. He is the director of partnerships at Vibrant Girls Development Initiative, a social enterprise that has empowered over 300 girls in semiurban areas of Lagos with soft and digital skills, and provided career mentorship to 90 girls. Previously, he was a communications and marketing fellow at VestedWorld, an impact-focused African VC, where he raised newsletter open rate to over 40% and executed content marketing strategies that grew Linkedin followership by 115%, engagement by 1100% and unique visitors by over 70%. He also led communications for Leonine, a financial services firm, where he helped over 20+ social entrepreneurs get investor-ready and raise external capital. He also executed tailored B2B and B2C content marketing strategies that helped increase the firm’s web traffic by 300%, Linkedin page followers by 70%, enterprise client pool by over 60%, training pool by over 150% and originated deals worth over $1million. He is one of 5 Agora Fellows trained in communications by Young Voices UK in 2019 and has coordinated marketing for LEAP Africa SIPA and SocialGood Summit Lagos. Through these experiences, he has developed strong skills in content, digital and event marketing. Abdulsamod enjoys launching initiatives and dissecting issues in youth development, entrepreneurship, gender, and education.

Host Organization: Generation

Role at Host Organization: As a Marketing Operations Fellow, Abdulsamod will support Generation’s global marketing function and initiatives by supporting the rollout of existing and new marketing tools, preparing and analysing data, interacting with the countries in gathering information, monitoring performance, training the teams, and supporting overall marketing activities. The Fellow will also interact with the Generation Digital team in monitoring changes and engagement.

Jerome is a consultant with eight years of experience in business development, market research, and consulting in the private sector. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from the University of Ghana. For the past five years, Jerome has impacted entrepreneurs and businesses by creating market research reports, identifying business opportunities, and facilitating match-making programs between businesses and investors. Previously, as a senior operations analyst at Asoko Insight, he built and managed a portfolio of about 5000 companies and exposed them to investment and growth opportunities through his market research and business development activities. He also led high-level meetings with executive management of targeted local companies and multinationals, to form partnerships, and assess their need for investment and the possibilities for partnership. Previously, Jerome worked as an agro-business client advisor with Procredit Savings and Loans, where he provided financial services to a portfolio of agricultural enterprises, and disbursed a total of about $100000 in loans over 15 months. As a result of his experiences, he has developed strong business development, market research, and consulting skills. This has led to a strong interest in entrepreneurship and Agriculture, and a focus on achieving tangible social impact by improving access to finance and opportunities for affiliated enterprises.

Host Organization: Generation

Role at Host Organization: As a Global Business Development Fellow, Jerome will help identify potential employer partners and the key stakeholders at those companies, initiate outreach, and pitch to interested organizations. The Fellow will use Salesforce to record and track interactions and analyze their pipeline. The Fellow will also provide account support to current partners to increase retention and grow the relationships.Generation seeks to build and maintain global and regional partnerships with employers to hire our graduates in multiple countries as these types of partnerships will be critical to unlocking the ability of Generation to continue to grow the number of learners we can effectively serve, particularly for our tech programs.

Boubacar is a Senegalese young leader who has been working since his early age to uplift communities and promote youth leadership. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a Master’s degree in Project Management, Boubacar pursued a career in sustainable development, international cooperation, and humanitarian affairs, working with several organizations, including CorpsAfrica, the World Food Program, and the International Organization of La Francophonie. In Madagascar with the International Organization of La Francophonie, he trained over 100 youth across the Indian Ocean on youth leadership, entrepreneurship and sustainable development goals and lobbied governments to promote youth participation. Boubacar has working as an independent consultant in the field of youth development and project management, and was collaborating as a consultant with the National Endowment for the Humanities Ajami Research Project led by the Center for African Studies at Boston University.

Host Organization: CorpsAfrica

Role at Host Organization: As the Alumni Association Fellow, Boubacar will work to build a system that supports former CorpsAfrica Volunteers in their personal lives and professional careers. As CorpsAfrica works to expand new programs in Africa, it is critical that they keep former Volunteers in all countries engaged with CorpsAfrica and with each other and help them succeed in their chosen careers. The Fellow will develop a solid framework of communication for CorpsAfrica Volunteer alumni, create opportunities for alumni to stay involved with CorpsAfrica, and provide professional support services to alumni, including hiring events and professional development opportunities.

Amina is a Procurement Professional with four years of experience working with international and humanitarian organizations. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in English Language, Literature, and Civilization from a Tunisian University in Tunisia. Over the past years, Amina has been working on development projects to improve private sectors and youth participation in civil society. Currently a Procurement Officer at FHI360, a $48,552,142 USAID project to increase youth participation in civic and political life. Starting in December 2021, her role has been of great help to the improvement of youth participation in civic life by procuring goods and services that impact directly and indirectly on youth participation in civic life. Previously, Amina worked as a Procurement Officer and was then promoted to Procurement Specialist with the USAID Tunisia Accountability, Decentralization, and Effective Municipalities project, a 4-year, $54 million U.S. government program to support the needs of Tunisia’s municipalities, implemented by Deloitte. She served as the lead procurement liaison between the USAID team, Tunisian municipalities, and local suppliers. Some of the procurements she led supported essential services, including road rehabilitation, energy, street lighting, waste management, municipal parks, healthcare, and government-wide IT procurements. In less than two years, Amina supported over USD 5,000,000 of local procurements for the Tunisian government on behalf of USAID. One of Amina’s most notable impacts in 2020 was leading the US government’s emergency response operations to supply the Tunisian government with USD 1,500,000 of COVID-19 equipment to over half of the country’s municipalities. She led the end-to-end process and coordinated with several awarded vendors to quickly manufacture and deliver the required items. Her efforts led to the delivery of 75,837 items and 1.5 million liters of cleaning solutions to 151 municipalities, and the Ministry of Local Affairs. Deloitte U.S awarded Amina an “Outstanding Performance Award” in 2020.

Host Organization: CARE

Role at Host Organization: As a Supply Chain Fellow, Amina will support CARE’s supply chain transformation project and help drive key milestones. As one of the core team members, the Fellow will work with corporate partners and the senior team to review the organization’s supply chain to assess gaps, plan development, and prioritize needs. The Fellow will also support the implementation of supply chain policies and training across the organization’s different country offices.

Vivian Sun has three years of research experience in academia and one year of private sector project management experience. She earned a Bachelor of Art in Sociology and in German and a Master’s degree in International Affairs. Vivian has helped manage a refugee employment program partnering with British Telecom, aiming to provide a group of refugees in the UK with internship opportunities and enhance their chances of employment in the job market. She has also assisted in a sociological research funded by the National Science Foundation to study Intergroup Hostility and the impact of Media Coverage. Vivian has volunteered at Sexual Violence Prevention Association as a Policy Analyst, to help push forward the progress of implementing proper Sex Education in schools, thereby intervening in sexual violence before it occurs. Vivian is now a Partnerships Associate focused on the China region and hopes to further her academic achievement with a Ph.D. degree.

Taylor Jackson is pursuing a master’s degree in Russian and Eastern European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences. She is committed to helping develop a positive and mutually beneficial relationship between the United States and Russia that is rooted in mutual respect and understanding. Her desire is to promote cross-cultural communication and assist, in any way that she can, in fostering an environment for open discourse and problem resolution between the United States and Russia. In addition to being a full-time student, she is also working at the Diversity Org as the Executive Assistant to the President of Global Partnerships. She handles research and outreach to Title 1 high schools, and she plays an active role in providing underserved students of color with professional development opportunities.

Kate Hibbert brings five years of experience in the nonprofit sector to her Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy program at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She previously held various roles at Global Village Project (GVP) in Decatur, GA, U.S., the only tuition-free middle school dedicated to serving newcomer refugee girls in the United States. As Development and Data Projects Specialist, she managed major campaigns and events for the development team and data projects across departments. As Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Leadership Circle co-facilitator, she convened a team to drive forward workplace and communications projects to achieve organizational goals. At the Coalition for Refugee Serving Agencies, she represented GVP at monthly meetings, supported World Refugee Day event planning, and coordinated data collection on the Annual Report committee. In a volunteering capacity, Kate serves on the board of directors for International Education Peace Volunteers, in addition to facilitating intercultural discussions and events and serving as the budding organization’s LinkedIn community manager. Her language skills in French, Spanish, and Arabic were gained through her B.A. in World Languages from Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana. Through her nonprofit experience, she has developed strengths in project management, organizational and peer leadership, and cross-functional collaboration. Kate hopes to strengthen DEI, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution efforts in her career in international relations and public service.