Freddie Carver – Regional Durable Solutions Secretariat/Rift Valley Institute

Freddie has been working on aid, displacement and politics in the Horn of Africa for 20 years. He has worked for NGOs, spent 10 years with DFID and, as an independent researcher, supported Rift Valley Institute’s research through the XCEPT with a focus on the Ethiopia/South Sudan border. He is currently leading Regional Durable Solutions Secretariat (ReDSS), a secretariat working on improving aid actors’ responses to forced displacement in the region on behalf of 14 NGOs. 

Mesganaw Mulugeta – Rift Valley Institute

Mesganaw is a senior expert with experience working on a wide range of governance issues including human rights, conflict management, democratic governance, civil society, media and accountability. Over the past decade, he assumed leadership and senior advisor positions in the public, development and academic sectors, including with the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and Irish aid. Mesganaw is currently a conflict sensitivity advisor with the peace research facility of the Rift Valley Institute based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Stephen Kirimi – Life & Peace Institute

Stephen Kirimi is a Senior Chevening Fellow in Conflict Prevention and Resolution at the University of York and is pursuing a PhD in Governance at Tangaza University in Kenya. Stephen has worked in the peace and security field for over 20 years and has vast experience in policy analysis and advocacy in the Horn of Africa. He is currently the Senior Advisor for the Horn of Africa Regional Programme at the Life & Peace Institute. His previous roles include Chief Executive Officer of PeaceNet Kenya, Regional Representative for Eastern and Southern Africa for the Resource Alliance and Chief Executive Officer of the Kenyan National Council of NGOs.

Jan Pospisil – Coventry University

Dr Jan Pospisil is an Associate Professor (Research) at Coventry University’s Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations. His work focuses on peace and transition processes, the Horn of Africa region, and politics in South Sudan/Sudan. Jan headed the workstream on local peace agreements in the Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP) at the University of Edinburgh, which is funded by FCDO, and is a co-investigator in the six-year follow-up programme Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep). Over the last years, he has been part of a team conducting the South Sudan public perceptions of peace survey, a project in collaboration with Detcro Research and Advisory. Jan is also a member of the scientific advisory board of the Austrian Centre for Peace (ACP) and an Associate Professor (venia docendi for Political Science) at the University of Vienna.

Michael Odhiambo – People, Land and Rural Development

A lawyer by training, Michael worked as a litigation practitioner in Kenya for more than a decade. In 1999, he founded Resource Conflict Institute (RECONCILE), a regional policy research and advocacy NGO based in Nakuru, Kenya. He was Executive Director of RECONCILE until 2012. Michael’s work focuses on research and analysis of policy, legal, and institutional frameworks for governance of land and natural resources. He seeks to support the development of frameworks that strengthen rights of resource dependent communities, particularly pastoralists and other indigenous communities. He is on the XCEPT Research Team for Turkana/Karamoja border as a Policy Analyst.