Africa-Europe Foundation

Sébastien Treyer has an exceptional track record in sustainable development. As head of foresight studies at the French Ministry of the Environment, he played an active role in leading the interface between science and policy and scientific programming at the European Commission, the French National Research Agency, and territorial actors such as the Seine Normandy Water Agency. He is also Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM) and member of the Lead Faculty of the Earth System Governance Network.

Sihle Tshabalala is a champion for disadvantaged populations, seeking to empower them through digital skills. His Quirky 30 NPC is a non-profit and public benefit organisation offering pathways out of poverty, inequality and crime through coding programmes. A self-taught coder, Tshabalala also co-founded the Brothers for All school, teaching former inmates, unemployed youth and vulnerable children. He has received several awards for his ground-breaking work, including the Spark Changemaker award, TEDx Fellowship, Africa Social Innovation Leadership Award and the Google Impact South Africa Challenge Finalists.

Rhoda Peace Tumusiime has extensive experience in the field of sustainable agriculture, food security, rural development and governance. She is currently part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), as well as Board Member of the International Potato Centre (CIP) and of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). In addition, she serves as chair for programme committee of the Africa Fertiliser and Agribusiness Partnership, and advises ASARECA on institutional governance.

Mateu Turró is a renowned academic who recently retired as Professor of Transport at the UPC in Barcelona. He was previously Associate Director of EIB, responsible for the evaluation of transport and urban projects. He developed the LOGISMED a network of multimodal logistic platforms to connect North-African countries among themselves and with the EU. Turró is widely published on transport and urban issues, including on plurinational transport megaprojects (for IADB), governance and evaluation, and on project financing issues. He developed a methodology to assess redistribution and intergenerational effects. He also assisted the European Commission in several Committees and is presently advising the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA).

Dymphna brings more than 25 years of experience managing and leading global development, energy, and climate initiatives in the nonprofit and private sectors. Most recently, she led international corporate engagement with the World Wildlife Fund’s Climate & Energy team. Previously, she worked with the Clinton Foundation as CEO of the Clinton Climate Initiative and has served as the senior director for public policy programs at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Dymphna has also served as the director of global renewables, infrastructure, and energy efficiency at a specialist investment banking firm in London, and for seven years at BP, where her last appointment was as BP Alternative Energy’s director of distributed energy markets.

Roberto Vigotti was an early believer in the value of renewable energy deployment in Africa. Carrying experience in the energy sector from positions in the public and private sphere throughout his 30 year-long career, Vigotti joined RES4Africa in 2012. He also coordinates renewAfrica, an industry-backed initiative that advocates for the creation of a European comprehensive programme for renewable energy investments in Africa.

Sitawa Wafula is a Kenyan social entrepreneur with over 8 years’ experience in national and international mental health advocacy. She is also the founder of My Mind My Funk, a weekly podcast and mental health resource hub that provides people in Africa with mental health information and support. Her portfolio includes bringing mental health conversations to the forefront through her Google award-winning blog, setting up Kenya’s first free mental health support line, and mentoring the next generation of mental health champions in Africa. The impact of her work was recognised in the ‘Top 42 African Innovators to watch’ list.

Sarah Wamala Andersson is Professor of Health and Welfare Technology at Mälardalens University, Sweden. Her current research includes reimbursement, implementation, evidence and effectiveness of digital health interventions. Internationally, Sarah contributes to research capacity building in Africa, training programs in science and leadership for transforming institutions and leadership development for health directors in Africa. Her previous leadership roles include serving as Director General of the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, Director of Health promotion and Disease prevention, Stockholm County Council, Professor of Health policy at Karolinska Institute and as Principal research scientist for multinational pharmaceutical companies.

Jacques Wery is a Professor of Agronomy and Agricultural Systems in Montpellier SupAgro and has led a CIRAD-INRA-CIHEAM research unit on functional analysis and design of Mediterranean and Tropical Cropping Systems. Wery has been a Board Member of the European Union’s Seamless project on integrated modelling of agricultural systems, Executive Secretary of the European Society for Agronomy and is Chair of the Farming Systems Design Network. Until 2018 he chaired the AgroSYS joint venture between SupAgro and five private companies to support the design of sustainable agricultural systems in Europe and Africa.

Kandeh Yumkella mobilises global action and plays a leading role for the planning and implementation of ground-breaking initiatives towards a sustainable energy future. Kandeh Yumkella is a distinguished development economist and an expert in agricultural economics with over 25 years of international experience. He is actively engaging relevant stakeholders in government, businesses, academia and civil society at the highest level to advocate for and promote sustainable energy for all. As former chair of UN-Energy, he brought a renewed and vital focus to global energy issues and led the coordination of the United Nations response to energy issues. Previously, Dr. Yumkella served as Director-General of United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) for two four-year terms. He is currently a member of the National Parliament in Sierra Leone.

Ahmed Zahran is the co-founder and CEO of KarmSolar, an Egyptian company established in 2011, that aims to move communities away from centralised power to sustainable, localized and independent alternatives. KarmSolar has won several technology competitions and become Egypt’s largest private off-grid solar integrator and one of the leading companies in solar energy applications in the country. Ahmed worked for Shell as a finance adviser to the European Emissions Trading System. He then worked at the Egypt Kuwait Holding Company as the business development manager for renewable energy and clean development mechanisms, establishing the company’s carbon trading and renewable energy business. Ahmed is also co-founder and a former board director of Nahdet El Mahrousa, one of the largest youth-run NGOs in Egypt, which works as an incubator.

In 2020, The Africa Report named him to the annual Top 50 Disruptors list.