Dr Charles Ruranga

Dr Charles Ruranga is a President of Board of Directors of Economic Policy Research Network (EPRN). Dr Charles has a PhD in Econometrics and he is a Senior Lecturer on Econometrics in Department of Applied Statistics and Director of African Center of Excellence in Data Science (ACE-DS) at the University of Rwanda. He has over 18 years of experience in academia, research, grants development and management and consultancy.

Mr Paul Akiwumi

Mr. Paul Akiwumi is the Director, Division for Africa, LDCs and Special Programmes (UNCTAD). He is a national of Ghana, joined UNCTAD in February 2017. Mr. Akiwumi holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom. Currently he is a Director, Division for Africa, LDCs and Special Programmes. Before being appointed as Director of ALDC, he served as Director of the Economic, Social and Development Affairs Unit in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN). He and his team were responsible for advising the UN Secretary-General on the development pillar and supporting the activities of the UN’s development-related departments, funds and programmes, fostering policy integration and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the IstanbulProgramme of Action, the Technology Bank for LDCs and the New Urban Agenda.

Mr. Ulrich Berdelmann

Mr. Ulrich Berdelmannis a program Manager at GIZ in charge of Support of decentralization as a contribution to good governance

Guest of Honor

Representative of the Ministry of Trade and Industry

Group Photo

Mr. Isidore Murhi Mihigo

Isidore Murhi Mihigo is a junior lecturer and researcher in the Laboratoired’Economie Appliquée au Development and in Centre d’Expertise en GestionMinière working at the Université Catholique de Bukavu. He holds a master’s degree in economics and management sciences from theUniversité Catholique de Bukavu in DR Congo and another in Globalisation andDevelopment from the University of Antwerp in Belgium. He is currently a PhDstudent at the Université Catholique de Bukavu (in Economics) in collaborationwith the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Dr. Andrew Mold

Andrew Mold is Chief, Cluster for Regional Integration, for the office for Eastern Africa of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Kigali. He has a Masters in Economics and Politics of Development from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Complutense University of Madrid. His Ph.D. thesis was on the role of American multinationals in processes of regional integration. He has previously worked for the UN Secretariat in Chile and in Addis Ababa and also for UNICEF in Costa Rica. He worked from 2008-2011 at the OECD Development Centre in Paris, where he was a Senior Economist and in charge of their flagship publication ‘Perspectives on Global Development : Shifting Wealth’. From 2004-2009 he was editor of the European Journal of Development Research. Andrew has published in a wide-number of journals, including the Journal of African Trade, Journal of International Development, the CEPAL Review, the African Development Review, Development, the Journalof Common Market Studies, and the Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Plenary discussions

Health Break

Mr. Didier Tabaro

ABARO Nt. Didier is an economist at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning of Rwanda in charge of Economic Research and Modelling. He has worked with GIZ (German cooperation) as a Macroeconomist and consultant. In the Ministry, He is, among other things, in charge of preparing analytical reports, develop models, explain and forecast economic behavior and patterns

Mr. Osten Chulu

Mr. Osten Chulu is a leading economist in UNDP who advises African countries on economic development to overcome social, economic, and environmental challenges to achieve a better life for all. Osten has over 30 years’ experience in the UN, the African Union and academia. He has taught Economics and Mathematics at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, The University of London at Wye, the Economics Institute at the University of Copenhagen, and the University of Malawi. His main interest is fixing old cars, cooking and macroeconomic modelling.

Mrs. Alice U. Anukur

Alice is the Country Director for Oxfam in Rwanda. She is a Socio- Economist byprofession, with many years of experience in senior leadership and management in the development sector. She has over two decades in senior management of programmes and projects related to livelihoods and sustainable economic development, peace-building, health, and national disaster management. Her passion is in contributing to promotion of gender equality by fighting Gender based Violence and empowering women in agriculture value chains. She brings multi-sectoral lens to the discussion from her extensive engagement in gender-based issues and youth development, economic women empowerment, feminist leadership and policy influencing through multi-stakeholder engagement and strategic partnership building withPrivate Sector, Civil Society, Faith leaders, Media and Governments at all levels.

Plenary discussions / Q&A

Lunch break

Mr. Emerta Aragie

Emerta A. Aragie is an economist whose research focuses on computable general equilibrium-based analyses of the impacts of investment and agricultural policies in developing countries on income distribution, poverty, and food security. Past research focuses on evaluating the consequences of climate change on internal migration, prioritization of public investment and policies, and analyzing agricultural trade. His research focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa. Before joining IFPRI in 2018, Emerta worked as an Economic Modeler at Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from 2015. He holds a PhD in Economics from Oxford Brookes University, UK in 2014.

Mr. Vedaste Kamasa Byombi

Vedaste BYOMBI KAMSA is committed born again Christian and a Senior researcher at the Economic Policy Research Network (EPRN). Vedaste is a PhD candidate at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and technology (JKUAT) in the department of Economics, Accounting and Finance in the School of Business. He is a leader in the economic commission at the Joint Action Development Forum (JADF) in Gasabo District. He is also an education specialist at Wellspring Foundation for Education a Canadian Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), which is empowering education leaders to implement the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC).

Dr. Fidele Mutemberezi

Dr. Mutemberezi Fidele holds a PhD degree in International Economics Sciences with specialization in International Trade from People’s Friendship University of Russia and a Master’s degree in Applied Economics and Bachelor’s degree from the same University. He is a senior Economist with more than 20 years of proven experience in lectureship and Research. Currently a Lecturer &Researcher at University of Rwanda and a member to Economic Policy Research Network. Dr. Mutemberezi carried out research activities and published papers focusing on Economic policy analysis, Trade policy and Regional integration, Development Planning, Poverty and inequality,and Economic growth.

Dr. Daniel Twesige

Dr. Twesige Daniel holds Ph.D in accounting and finance, master’s degree in business administration (finance), ACCA and a bachelor’s degree in accounting.He is currently a full time lecturer at University of Rwanda and he is a member to the Economic Policy Research. Dr Daniel has done research in various fields of business which include entrepreneurship, family business sustainability, taxation, finance and accounting. He also works as a consultant with over ten years of progressive working experience in financial management, taxation andaccounting.

Plenary discussions

Presentation of key Recommendations from the Conference

Dr Charles Ruranga

Dr Charles Ruranga, President of Board of Directors of Economic Policy Research Network (EPRN)

Guest of Honor

Guest of Honor : Representative of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning