Meet Our Facilitators

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Innocent Antoine Houedji

Coordinator of Youth Initiative for Land in Africa (Yilaa), has over 10 years of experience in land expertise, management, business planning, financial analysis, software engineering, operations, and decision analysis. Before founding YILAA in 2019, Innocent Antoine worked on the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Land Access Project in Benin. He has previously held various management positions in Benin, most recently as Regional Head of Office of the Benin National Agency for Land Affairs and Domains (ANDF).

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Nana Ama Yirrah

Land Economist, Development Policy Analyst and Gender Specialist with over 25 years of experience in land and natural resource governance, land policy research and advocacy, and women’s land rights. She is founder and Executive Director of COLANDEF of Ghana, she oversees the strategic direction of the organization, manages engagement with partners and leads COLANDEF’s national policy advocacy agenda.

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Dr. Tizai Mauto

Landesa Land Tenure & Youth Specialist, provides land policy analysis and implementation expertise on rural land tenure security and the importance of youth access to land for improving livelihoods and promoting economic development. He has previously worked on youth-focused programming with UN-Habitat and the Global Land Tool Network and as an urban planner for the government of Zimbabwe.

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Justus Wambayi

Land Administration Specialist with over 8 years of experience working on land policy advocacy, the establishment of land information management systems, participatory community resource mapping, and securing of land rights in Sub-Saharan Africa working with organizations such as Oxfam, UN Habitat, FAO and the Society of International Development. Currently, he is a Program Specialist for Cadasta Foundation leading efforts to document land rights in Eastern Africa and beyond.

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Yannick Fiedler

Programme Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Yannick is coordinating a series of projects in North and West Africa, which aim to strengthen the enabling environment for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems, with a strong focus on youth. An author of several publications and developer of capacity development tools, his most recent works focus on empowering youth in the African region. A national of Germany, Yannick holds a Master from Sciences Po University (France).

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Ms. Grace Ananda

Gender and women’s land rights expert with extensive experience in policy, influencing, and advocacy engagements around the African Union, the Regional Economic Bloc, civil society organizations and governments. She has worked with numerous international NGOs, including Oxfam, Action Aid, Catholic Relief Services, and ACE Africa, and has led teams and consortium members in Kenya and across Africa on women’s land rights advocacy and global solidarity actions. Welcome, Grace.

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Dr Founémakan SISSOKO Expert FONCIER

Docteur Founémakan Sissoko a plus de 15 ans d’expérience administrative, juridiques et professionnelles. Il a une Maitrise en droit public, un Master en Droit International et Comparé de l’Environnement, un Diplôme de Formation Supérieure en Planification Régionale et Aménagement du Territoire et un Ph.D en Gestion Foncière (Land Ressource). Actuellement Docteur Sissoko est Enseignant-chercheur à la Faculté des Sciences Administratives et Politiques de l’Université des Sciences Juridiques et Politiques de Bamako. Parallèlement à ses activités d’enseigements , de recherche et de consultation, Docteur Sissoko apporte son accompagnent aux organisation paysannes dans la mise en œuvre de la Loi sur le Foncier Agricole, l’élaboration des conventions locales pour la gestion des ressources naturelles entre autres. Récemment Docteur Sissoko a été associé à l’étude sur l’opérationnalisation de l’Observatoire national du Foncier Agricole (ONAFA) du Mali ( Juin-Juillet 2020).

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Ameth DIALLO

Sénégalais, je suis né le 12 février 1992 dans un petit village nommé Keur Pathé Diouf, dans le Département de Nioro du Rip, Région de Kaolack. Après avoir obtenu mes diplômes d’études élémentaires et secondaires, j’ai poursuivi mes études supérieures à l’Université Gaston Berger de Saint où je suis actuellement doctorant en Droit public avec comme spécialisation Droit de la décentralisation et gestion des Collectivités territoriales. Passionné par le foncier, j’ai consacré mon Master 1 à la réforme foncière au Sénégal. Suite à mon Master 2 portant sur Décentralisation, ONG et Développement local, j’ai entièrement consacré mes recherches sur la gouvernance foncière au Sénégal en particulier et en Afrique de l’Ouest en général. Ma carrière universitaire et professionnelle m’ambitionne de réaliser de grands projets en matière foncière au plan national et international. Actuellement, Assistant du Coordonnateur de YILAA.

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Rik Wouters

Rik Wouters is Director of Eureg Advice, a private consultancy firm in land related matters. From March 2019 until March 2021 he was senior Program Advisor in the Land-at-scale program implemented by RVO. Before he was senior land expert at the Netherlands Kadaster since 1998. Between 2008 and 2019 he was vice-chair and bureau member at the WPLA under the UNECE.