Category: Advisory Council

Center for Effective Philanthropy, Manager

Romero Hayman is a manager at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) in Cambridge, MA. CEP is a nonprofit organization with a mission to provide management and governance tools to define, assess, and improve overall foundation performance. CEP assessment tool subscribers include such organizations as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Boston Foundation. In his time with CEP, Romero has worked with, and presented to, the senior management and boards of many of the largest foundations in the United States and Canada. Romero is primarily responsible for CEP’s work assessing foundation staffs and boards, and helping foundations use the results of these assessments to make management decisions. He also contributes to CEP’s research and co-authored a report entitled Beyond compliance: The Trustee viewpoint on Effective Foundation Governance.

Aparna Polavarapu is a lawyer and recently went back to graduate student at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she focused her research on promotion of rule of law and women’s rights in post-conflict and developing countries. Graduating with a JD from Georgetown Law School in 2005, she worked as a business attorney, where she specialized in private equity, venture capital and debt finance transactions. Outside of the corporate world, she engaged in pro bono representation of asylum seekers. Her current research involves combining field research with legal analysis to develop more effective and fair rule of law initiatives.

Ms. Hopewell is a creative and energetic leader who has demonstrated a superior ability to work with diverse stakeholders to increase organizational effectiveness. Ms. Hopewell has over 20 years of domestic and international non-profit executive management, consulting, and coaching experience. Ms. Hopewell has undertaken extended assignments in North Africa, the Caribbean, and francophone West Africa, where, as a Field Director, she designed and supervised projects in community mobilization, non-formal education, community health, micro-enterprise and income generation, youth development, and the arts. Ms. Hopewell has consulted with health, education and social service organizations to revitalize their strategic aims, galvanize board and executive leadership, and harness the human, financial, and organizational resources necessary to achieve enhanced impact. Her consulting assignments have been in the United States, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Thailand. Ms. Hopewell is a talented writer and event planner, and enjoys working with clients to develop successful promotional materials, grants, and events to raise visibility, improve outreach, and generate revenue. Currently Ms. Hopewell is the Principal of Seven Centers Consulting – a coaching and strategic planning firm serving progressive, mission focused leaders and their organizations.

Ms. Hopewell received her B.A. in Economics and Urban Studies from Wellesley College in 1979, and her M.Sc. in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics in 1989. She expects to receive her certification as a Professional Co-Active Coach in 2007.

Mr. Etheart serves as the current General Administrator at the Haitian Embassy in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Prior to his work at IIJD, Mr. Etheart was a Haitian delegate to the 58th General Assembly of the United Nations and a Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor at SEILA in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He is also the Director of the Board for Haitian Governance. Mr. Etheart has an extensive background in nonprofit management, local governance and decentralization, in both Haiti and the Boston area. He received his Master of Science in Sustainable Development with a concentration in management from the School for International Training. Mr. Etheart also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the Institut Superieur Technique d’ Haiti.

Mr. Mbwangue is an agricultural engineer with more than 15 years experience working in developing countries. Before coming to IIJD, he was Executive Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. As a consultant, Mr. Mbwangue has specialized in poverty, social impact analysis, monitoring, evaluation, management and advocacy of health programs in developing countries. Mr. Mbwangue currently works as a consultant for the World Bank Institute in the Rural Poverty & Development Program. He holds a Master of Public Administration from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and a degree in Agricultural Engineering from the National Institute for Rural Development at Dschang University in Cameroon.

Dr John Gay brings about 50 years experience working and living in Africa. Since his retirement in 2001, Dr. John Gay has been associated with the Episcopal Divinity School and Boston University. In 2003 he organized a tour of seminary students in South Africa and Lesotho, and also administered a consultation on contextual theology at the Episcopal Divinity School. John has worked on several research and development and study programs for the UNDP, World Bank, FAO, and UNICEF as well as providing technical assistant to several Southern African governments.

Up to his retirement in January 2001 John worked with the Sechaba Consultants on social and economic analysis in Lesotho, worked until March 1992 with the Transformation Resource Centre, as a missionary appointed by the American Episcopal Church. Transformation is an ecumenical organization working for peace, justice and economic development. Before joining Transformation, he worked as a consultant with development projects in Lesotho, as well as in Botswana, Ethiopia and Tanzania. His focus has been on helping people at the bottom of society express their knowledge, goals, problems and beliefs to those in governments and in foreign aid agencies that are planning their future and at the same time, trying to help local colleagues develop research skills of their own. In Lesotho, He worked with agricultural development projects.

Chairperson, social science division, Cuttington University College, Suacoco, Liberia, 1958-65, 1966-68, 1970-73, and dean of instruction, 1958-60, Dr. John served as a missionary for the Episcopal Church at Cuttington University College, with intermittent periods of teaching and studying in the United States. He was at first in charge of the entire academic program, but when a Liberian was appointed to the post of dean of instruction he moved to the position of chairperson of the social sciences division. During his time at Cuttington, he taught social science, conducted his own research, engaged in extension work in the surrounding communities, and supervised student research.

John taught at the National University of Lesotho in sociology and African studies, engaged in his own research and taught students how to be researchers, and for two years he was a Fulbright lecturer. During his first four years in Lesotho, before joining the University, he taught courses in the Anglican theological seminaries in Lesotho and South Africa, on a voluntary basis.

In 1986 John had a fellowship at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he studied the relation between social and economic development in Africa and new ideas in theology. Prior to that he had fellowships at Cambridge University (1975-76) and Stanford University (1965-66), where he wrote up research done in Liberia, and broadened his understanding of research methodology and findings from other research projects.

Dr. Gay has continued to assist with ongoing research at Sechaba Consultants, particularly in the areas of chronic poverty, small businesses and democracy, both in Cambridge and in visits to Lesotho, South Africa and Namibia in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. John is still associated with the Afro barometer democracy study and the Southern African Migration Project. His experience and deeply understanding of the issues Africa now faces have brought him to the International Institute for Justice and Development where. John seat at the IIJD Advisory committee.

Professor Kwame Frimpong is a graduate of the University of Ghana and Yale Law School in the United States. He is a Professor of Law and a qualified barrister in Ghana.

He taught at the University of Botswana from 1984 to 2007. Prior to that, he taught briefly at the University of Ghana from 1978 to 1984.  Professor Frimpong was a former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of University of Botswana. He was also the Secretary General of the Southern African Universities Social Science Conference (SAUSSC) from January 1996 to December 1999.

He served as the United Nations Legal Adviser (Observer) to the Commission Regarding Public Violence and Intimidation (popularly known as the Goldstone Commission) under the United Nations Mission to South Africa (UNOMSA), during South Africa’s transition to democratic rule (1992-1994).

Professor Frimpong has since December 2007 returned to his home country, Ghana. He is Professor of Law at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) where he served as the Dean of the Graduate School of Governance, Leadership and Public Management (GSGL&PM) from 2008 to 2010. He has since 20 January 2010 been appointed the Founding Dean of a new Law School at GIMPA.

Professor Frimpong’s research and publications are versatile and cover, criminal law, administration of criminal justice, criminology, penology, prison reform, constitutional law and constitutionalism, human rights, democratic governance, and corruption.

Professor Frimpong is a strong advocate of rule of law, human rights, democratic rule and good governance in Africa.

Francis teaches Law at Columbia University Law, Judge at the World Bank Administrative Tribunal and Member Panel of the ICSID Arbitrators. He is the Chairperson of the IIJD Advisory Council.

Mr. Ssekandi has over 35 years of legal practice in various common law and civil law jurisdictions. He has served as Attorney and International Legal in the areas of international project finance, international commercial law, international law and legal and judicial reform, as well as significant experience in adjudication, arbitration, mediation, civil conflict resolution and peacekeeping.

Francis Ssekandi became a Judge of the High Court of Uganda in 1974 and later Justice of Appeal of the currently renamed Supreme Court of Uganda.

Mr. Ssekandi joined the United Nations in 1981 and was a principal legal advisor to the United Nations development programs and was also in charge of the commercial law cluster resolving commercial disputes with the United Nations.

He served over 19 years in the international civil service, as Deputy Director in the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations, Director, Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General in Liberia, and General Counsel of the African Development Bank. He negotiated several technical cooperation agreements with governments and initiated many innovative institutional legal models for the delivery of UN programs, including the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the African Management Services Company (AMSCO), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and United Nations Compensation Commission after the 1991 Iraq war. He completed a project for legal and judicial reform of the justice sector for the Government of Rwanda, prepared and negotiated Technical Cooperation Agreements for the Government of Timor Leste (East Timor), as a UNDP International Consultant.

In 1996 he became Deputy to the Secretary General’s Special Representative in Liberia, in charge of peacekeeping operations there. In 1997 he was appointed General Counsel of the African Development Bank where he was the anchor for the institutional reforms carried out by President Omar Kabbaj, including revision of the Bank’s Charter to incorporate new voting rights for shareholders, and establishment of an Administrative Tribunal to judge staff disputes. he is a Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia University, and is Admitted to the Uganda Bar, the New York Bar, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He serves on the Boards of the IIRR, plays soccer, the ABA/UNDP Resources Centre and the Centre for Peace/War Studies. Published articles and Edited and updated Elias’ New Horizons in International Law

Mr. Francis M. Ssekandi graduated in 1965 with LL.B (Hons) from London and obtained his LL.M from Columbia University in 1966. Francis Ssekandi is Professor of law, Columbia University School of Law,Judge, World Bank Administrative Tribunal and Member Panel of ICSID Arbitrators. He seats at the Board of Directors of the Center for War/Peace Studies. He is the Chairperson of the IIJD Advisory Council.