PANEL 1 : Enhancing resilience of economies in this era of socio- economic shocks
Thursday 27th June 2024 Before noon

MODERATOR :
Anne-Lyse Bizindavyi is a seasoned Economist & Development Expert with more than ten years of experience in M&E within the fields of Programme/Project Design, Development and Management applied in the humanitarian, development and business fields. Since January 2020, Anne-Lyse has been serving as a Programme Monitoring Officer for UNHCR Rwanda, where she leads impact monitoring for the country operation program with an annual budget of approximately USD 50 million and coordinate over 50 partners who support over 135,000 refugees and host communities. With a background in development economics and extensive regional experience across East Africa in SMEs, Private Sector and Partnership development, Anne-Lyse Bizindavyi has contributed to various impactful initiatives. Anne-Lyse holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Rwanda and a Master’s in Tourism and Entrepreneurship Development from Université du Québec à Montréal (Uqam), Canada. She is both fluent in French and English.

PANELISTS :
Getaw Tadesse is the Director for the Department of Operational Analysis at AKADEMIYA2063. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway). He has more than 15 years of experience in policy research. His research seeks to understand the economics of climate changes ; the African agricultural value chains and agri-food systems ; and the welfare and commercial impacts of development on policies and programs. Tadesse has published more than 25 journal papers and book chapters and coordinated several research and development projects. Before joining AKADEMIYA2063, he worked as a Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany
Andrew Mold is Chief of the AfCFTA Cluster at the office for East Africa of Economic Commission for Africa. He has a PhD. in economics and has worked for the United Nations in Costa Rica, Chile, Ethiopia, Chile and Rwanda. He was also a Senior Economist at the OECD in Paris. His work has focused on international trade, multinational corporations and regional integration. He is co-author (with Francis Mangeni) of the book ‘Borderless Africa - A Sceptic’s Guide to the Continental Free Trade Area’ (Hurst & Company/Oxford University Press), which was published in April 2024.

Osten Chulu is the Senior Economic Advisor for UNDP Rwanda. He previously served as Economic Advisor for South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi and the Gambia. Osten has also served as Regional Policy Advisor for the MDGs at the UNDP Regional Service Centre for Eastern and Southern Africa. Osten also served as the African Peer Review SDGs and Agenda 2063 Expert. He has lectured macroeconomics at the University of Malawi, The Economic Institute of the University of Copenhagen, The University of London, and the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands.

Dr. Thierry Kalisa is Chief Economist and Executive Director Monetary Policy and Research Directorate at the National Bank of Rwanda, Rwanda’s Central Bank. His work covers monetary policy formulation, economic research, modelling, among other things. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Kalisa was Senior Economist, Head of the Macroeconomic Policy Division in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. He graduated from University Lyon 2, France, with a PhD in Economics and has teaching experience for various economic courses. He is also a member of the Board of Rwanda Airport Company and Agaciro Development Fund.
PANEL 2 : Efficient tax policy and tax administration for inclusive and sustainable development
Thursday 27th June 2024 - Afternoon

MODERATOR :
John Karangwa presently serves as the Head of Research and Policy Analysis at the Rwanda Revenue Authority, leveraging over a decade of public sector experience specializing in official statistics and public economics. Previously, he held the role of Principal Statistician overseeing Social and Vital Statistics at the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda. John holds a BSc. in Applied Statistics from the National University of Rwanda, a Post Graduate diploma in Poverty Reduction : Policy and Practice from the University of London, and an MSc in Applied Economics from University College Dublin (UCD). His research pursuits include tax compliance, tax policy, tax administration, and the development of efficient and equitable tax systems. These efforts have significantly influenced the evolution of tax policy and have played a meaningful role in advancing the strategic initiatives of RRA.

PANELISTS :
Abel NTEGANO holds a Master’s degree of Development Policy with specialization in Fiscal Policy and Tax Policy from Korean Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management ; and he is currently a Director General of Tax policy in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning with 30 years’ experience in Economic Development field with a focus on Tax Policy, Fiscal Policy, Public Finance, Operations of Economic Development, Poverty Reduction and Government Finance Statistics. Abel is a Member of the EAC Fiscal Affairs Committee in charge of harmonization of fiscal and Tax policies of The East African community towards the EAC Monetary Union requirements, Member of National Implementation committee of the EAC common Market Protocol and Lecture in University of Rwanda and University of Adventist of Central Africa focussing on Budget Process and monitoring in Rwanda.

Mukama Denis works for the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) and is the Acting Commissioner for Strategy and Risk Analysis. He has worked for the tax administration for close to 17 years now, most recently as the Assistant Commissioner for Research, Planning and Statistics having risen through the ranks from joining the institution as a statistics officer. In his current post, Denis is responsible for overseeing institutional research activities, tax policy and statistical analysis and ensuring they support management decision making. Denis works closely with the Ministry of Finance on policy and administration aspects including developing and monitoring implementation of Rwanda’s Medium Term Revenue Strategy (MTRS) and he is also a member of the Tax Policy Committee within the ministry.

Mbakiso Magwape is an international tax and trade legal specialist with experience in policy development, legislative drafting and litigation. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at ICTD. He previously served in the Revenue Administration in Botswana for four years, and was seconded to the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation in Netherlands in 2022. He has also served as a technical expert in regional projects in Africa.

Mr. Gabor Pula, a national of Hungary, who joined the IMF in 2015, has worked on a range of assignments covering low-income, emerging market, and advanced economies. Before being assigned as IMF Resident Representative for Rwanda in 2022, he was a senior economist at the Kenya desk in the African Department. He also worked in other IMF departments (such as the Strategy, Policy and Review and European Department). Prior to joining the IMF, Mr. Pula worked at the European Central Bank including his three-year tenure as Advisor in the ECB’s Representative Office at the IMF Executive Board, at the Central Bank of Hungary and the Hungarian Ministry of Finance. Mr. Pula has conducted extensive research, including on monetary policy and inflation dynamics, trade and regional spillovers, capital flows, SOE reforms and growth and development.

PANEL 3 : Enhancing human capital development in Rwanda, challenges and opportunities

Friday 28th June 2024 Before noon

MODERATOR :
Marcel Sibomana is a development expert who works for Save the Children Rwanda and Burundi as the Director for Program Development and Quality. He is a child/human rights advocate and holds a master’s degree in Development Studies. Marcel is very familiar with child related policies and has been instrumental in advocating for equitable investment in children and young people.

PANELISTS :
Mr. Emmanuel Munyemana is a Social Policy and Economic specialist for UNICEF Rwanda. His expert knowledge and experience cover Public Finance for Children (PF4C), PFM analytics, Child Poverty Monitoring, social sectors planning and budgeting, data and evidence generation for informed policy making. Prior to Joining UNICEF, Emmanuel worked for the Government of Rwanda, in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning as National Planning Technical Advisor, the Ministry of Justice as Director of Policy Planning, M&E and Research, and the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR) as Research Assistant. He holds two master’s degrees one in Public Finance and Social Policy from KDI School of Public Policy and Management in South Korea and another in Applied Economics from the University of Rwanda. Emmanuel is also pursuing a Ph.D. by Research in Data Science at the African Center of Excellence in Data Science (ACE-DS). He is investigating impact of social safety on households’ financial behaviour in Rwanda.

Herman Musahara is currently a Senior Research Associate of Economic Policy Research Network (EPRN) based in Rwanda. He was formerly Associate Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Rwanda and Director of Consultancy Services till 2021. He obtained his first and second degrees in Economics from the University of Dar es Salaam and a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Western Cape in 2005. He was for a term Dean of Faculty of Economics and Management of the former National University of Rwanda up to 2008, Director of Planning and Development of the same University till 2010. He was the Vice Rector ai of the University in charge of Academics and Research till 2013. He was Director of Research and later Executive Director ai of the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa based in Addis Ababa till 2016. He has lectured, researched and published widely on Development, Policy Analysis, Land, Agriculture and Environment among several other themes. He has consulted for government, international organizations such as the Nile Bain Initiative, and ASARECA and UN agencies at regional and global levels. He is the current representative of EPRN to the Research Directors team of ReNAPRI.

Philbert KAMARA is IT expert by profession and is currently the Education Institution Connectivity Senior Engineer at Rwanda Education Board. Among his key roles, he is in charge of customization of Moodle LMS Project integration with SDMS to accommodate Rwanda education curriculum and classes block structure with advanced features, to improve the learning platform of students simplifying the availability of learning materials for all students and ensure a convenient teaching site for teachers.

Joseph Nkurunziza serves currently as the Principal of the College of Business and Economics at the University of Rwanda. He is also a Lecturer in the department of Applied Statistics. Nkurunziza is Statistician with a broad interest in Applied Statistics for economics, policy analysis and development planning. He holds a PhD degree in International Development Studies from Utrecht University - The Netherlands in 2015 and a Master’s Degree in Applied Statistics in Economics and Insurance from Catholic University of Louvain-la Neuve, Belgium in 2007. In various professional trainings, he has been trained on Financial programming and Policies, Complex sample survey analysis, Quality Supervision on Postgraduate Studies, Impact evaluation.

PANEL 4 : Policy Options to Enhance Food and Nutrition Security in Africa
MODERATOR :
Straton Habumugisha is a Professional in food systems and sustainable development. He graduated in Food Science and Technology with two masters one in Agricultural economics another one in International Development. He served across food systems and livelihoods programs and projects with various institutions. Currently Straton works at the Sight and Life and manages a project called ‘Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE) project. This project aims to improve nutrition and health, and to reduce poverty by increasing the demand and supply of local, diverse, nutritious foods produced using agro-ecological practices.

PANELISTS :

James Warner is a Research Fellow in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit and is the Program Leader for Rwanda’s Strategy and Support Program (RSSP). He first joined IFPRI in 2013 and was the office head of IFPRI’s Eastern and Southern Africa Office, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Before joining IFPRI, James worked extensively in eastern and southern Africa as both an academic and economic policy consultant and was a tenured Associate Professor at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, USA. Recent publications include papers on rural mobile phone ownership from a gender perspective, economics of acid soil remediation, biofortification, nutrition supplementation strategies, and smallholder agricultural commercialization. His U.S. education includes a PhD from the University of Utah, master’s degrees from the University of New Hampshire and University of California, Riverside, and a bachelor’s degree from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

Mr Egide Mutabazi Analyst of Crop Products Supply Chain and Market in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources. Background in agriculture and rural development. Experience in agricultural Research and Development, farmer trainings, agribusinesses and market linkages.

Felix HAVUGIYAREMYE is the Commodity Value Chain Trade Specialist at the Ministry of Trade and Industry. He has Master’s Degree in Economics and has joined MINICOM since 2019 and since then has contributed much on promoting trade of agricultural commodities through well-established market linkages

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