Jean de Matha Ouédraogo, Country Director
Jean de Matha holds a Master’s degree in Rural Development and Engineering with a specific focus on water and forestry. He also holds a Post Graduate degree in Environmental and Shelia land management systems and a Post-university degree in soft water management and fishery.
He started his career in 1987 as a researcher in a game ranch, specialising in animal nutrition and population. Thereafter, he worked as a secondary school teacher and he taught subjects such as Human and Earth science, Physics and Chemistry. He also worked as a civil servant and during this time he contributed towards the development of policies in Burkina Faso in the areas of environment, water, halieutic resources, forestry and wildlife. As Regional Director for Region de Boucle du Mouhoun, he was responsible for environmental protection and tourism promotion. In 2005, he was awarded the ‘Knight of the Burkinabe Order’ in recognition for his efforts in the development sector.
Jean de Matha first joined SNV in Burkina Faso as a senior advisor in 1997. He then took up the position of Programme Officer, Deputy Director and became SNV Burkina Faso’s Programme Manager in 2005. In 2006, he joined SNV Rwanda as Country Director. Under his leadership, SNV Rwanda has demonstrated excellent performance and built strong sectors in Renewable Energy, Agriculture (coffee), Beekeeping, Tourism, WaSH, Education and the Joint Action Development Forum, a domestic accountability programme.
Jean de Matha is the responsible for both corporate and regional programmes in renewable energy. He is also the account manager for the Africa Biogas Partnership Programme covering six countries in Africa.
His passion is reading and learning about the history of people and African states’ traditions as a contribution to global civilisation. His vision is to see Africans fully develop their capacities in order to create a balanced relationship with the rest of the world.
Onward Mandebvu, Portfolio Coordinator, North Western Portfolio
Onward is a holder of a PhD in Industrial Education and Technology from Iowa State University USA, an MA in Technical Education from Linkoping University Sweden, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Adult and Continuing Education and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Zimbabwe.
Onward has held a number of positions in his career spanning over 27years. At the University of Zimbabwe, he contributed to the development of technical and vocational education as a discipline and field of practice through his researches and publications.
Onward joined SNV in 2003 and first worked in Zambia as a senior advisor for organisation development and institutional development in local government. He later moved to SNV Uganda as an education advisor.
Onward was the lead advisor in the development of the Development Responses to HIV&AIDS (DRHA) in Zimbabwe and was one of the architects of the East and Southern Africa DRHA strategy. In SNV Uganda Onward oversaw the finalisation of the education strategy and championed the development of the strategy implementation frameworks, systems and products the most notable of which was the flagship School Quality Improvement Programme (SEQUIP). In addition, as the practice area leader for Education in Uganda Onward played a major role in developing the regional education strategy and products.
Among the many tasks that Onward enjoys in his work, perhaps his greatest joy comes from transforming people’s belief in their capacity for change. He is enthusiastic to bring this passion not only to SNV Zambia but also to SNV clients who are the direct actors in the fight against poverty.
Kennedy Phiri – Portfolio Coordinator Western Portfolio
Kennedy has an MSc in Rural Resource Management and a bachelor’s degree in Education. His work experience spans 18 years of working with rural communities on natural resource managment programmes, strengthening participation mechanisms. Kennedy has also worked with volunteer programmes, designing a five year community school EU funded project, supporting programme funding for VSO ESA region to managing grants programme under Oxfam.
Kennedy joined SNV in 2005 as a governance advisor and is currently working as Portfolio Coordinator for the Western Portfolio. With background in education and having spent many years working with educational programmes, he is interested in the kind of dynamics that allow the public and community to work together to improve education delivery. At the moment he is supporting work in improving the functionality of education boards. Kennedy is also the PC sponsor for SNV Zambia water, sanitation and hygiene sector. Apart from steering the strategic direction of the sector, Kennedy has been involved in shaping the school water and sanitation component of the Zambia programme. Part of his passion is addressing the issues of rights in service provision. At the moment, he is looking at how to improve the accountability dynamics between service provider, regulators and service recipients to come up with a modal for WaSH service provision for rural areas.
Chanda Mongo, Portfolio Coordinator, National Portfolio
Chanda holds a Masters Degree in Development Studies from The Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics with Business Administration from the University of Zambia.
Between 1996 and 2004, Chanda served as Executive Director for Small Enterprises Development Board after having a short stint with Standard Chartered Bank as Account Relationship Manager and Operations Manager respectively. Chanda has also done a number of consultancy assignments with organisations such as COMESA, The AU, World Bank and other International Institutions and sits on various Boards. He is a member of the Institute of Directors of Zambia, the Economic Association of Zambia and the Zambia Alliance for People Empowerment.
He joined SNV Zambia on 1 June, 2010 as the portfolio coordinator for the national portfolio. His main focus is to build the renewable energy programme in Zambia. Prior to joining SNV Zambia, Chanda worked as Regional Coordinator for ProBEC, German Development Cooperation from August 2008 to date. Before that, Chanda served as Business and Investments Manager for the Zambia Threshold Project from 2006 to 2008 where he managed various Portfolios including Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), Zambia Business Forum (ZBF) and Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA). Chanda headed the team that was involved with the establishment of the Zambia Development Agency and was also Technical Advisor for capacity building for Zambia Business Forum in the Area of Policy Analysis. In the same capacity, Chanda was a link between Zambia Revenue Authority and other stakeholders in supporting the ZRA Integrity Committee and Internal Affairs Unit. He was also involved in Business Process Re-engineering at the Ministry of Lands.
Calvin Sakala – Country Controller SNV Zambia
Bwali Ndau, Human Resources Officer
Bwali is a human resources practitioner with qualifications in Human Resources and Education. He is an active member of the Zambia Institute of Human Resource Management and the Institute of Chartered Secretaries. He is currently pursuing further studies and is a Bachelor of Law Degree finalist.
Bwali has over fourteen years of HR generalist experience and a wealth of knowledge in all aspects of human resources management. He previously worked at World Vision Zambia and USAID Zambia Threshold Project, where he served as HR Officer and Training Manager respectively.
Bwali joined SNV in April 2009 and since then has benn able to integrate well in the One Programme One Team (OPOT) in SNV Zambia. This is due to his skill and competency in the cross cutting HR pillars ranging from HR development, recruitment and selection, health and safety, compensation and benefits and quality HR reporting. He maintains constant HR link with staff and avails them one-on-one meetings at least twice a year to discuss individual pertinent HR issues. Bwali is an HIV/AIDS Counsellor both in and outside work.