Carole Avande Houndjo is a linguist of African languages and an advocate and activist for the right to education for youth and adults. She has coordinated the literacy and translation programme of the NGO Wycliffe in Benin for more than 10 years. Since 2014, Carole has been the coordinator of the Pamoja West Africa Network. The Pamoja West Africa Network has members from 15 countries in Africa that promote the REFLECT approach. Pamoja works to strengthen the capacities of civil society organisations to improve the quality of education in Africa. In addition to this, Pamoja promotes and advocates for the right to education of youth and adults in Africa.

David Harrington has worked in the field of education and adult education for the past 30 years, previously as Regional Director for DVV International in Southern Africa. He is Project Manager of the African Continental Project and MOJA Adult Education Platform, and co-editor of the second MOJA Journal of Adult Education. He has worked extensively with African networks and other stakeholders in helping to establish an enabling environment for adult education, especially in Southern Africa, including the development of policies, strategies and curricula. His interests include promoting and working with community-responsive education that recognises the value and contribution of non-formal education to community development.

Ivor Baatjes is the Executive Director of the Canon Collins Trust. Prior to this, he served as Director of the Centre for Integrated Post-School Education and Training (CIPSET), Nelson Mandela University; co- host of the National Research Foundation SARChI Chair in Community Adult and Worker Education; board member of the National Institute for Human and Social Sciences (NIHSS); and Chair of the Education Policy Consortium (EPC). He has worked across all the subsectors of the post-school education and training sector and was a member of the current Ministerial Task Team on Community Education and Training. Ivor was a senior researcher at the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation (CERT) at the University of Johannesburg and previously Director of the Centre for Adult Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). He also served as a policy maker in the National Department of Education in the mid-1990s and as a member of several ministerial and departmental reference groups and task teams. Ivor was one of the founding members of the digital platform MOJA - Adult Education Africa and served as content manager of MOJA and editor-in-chief of the first MOJA Journal of Adult Education. His research interests include the social and solidarity economy and its relationships with community-driven food, health, water and energy systems; adult and community education; higher education; workers education; and learning in social movements.

Professor Rebecca Nthogo Lekoko was educated in Botswana, Canada and the United States of America, first as a teacher trainer then adult educator. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Doctor of Education in Adult Education. With four decades of working in diverse adult education and learning environments, Professor Lekoko has made a significant contribution in out of school education for children, non-formal education, community learning centres, empowerment and social mobilisation strategies; these mostly done under the aegis of the University of Botswana. Now retired from UB, she is an inaugural Dean of Academic Affairs of a premier Military College, Defence Command and Staff College of the Botswana Defence Force. Additionally, she is now a prominent advocate for age with rights and a founder of Ageless Inspirations Charitable Organization, Botswana. She believes inclusion and representation of all is essential for an inclusive economic development agenda. She is the chief editor of Ba Isago Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies and has published extensively locally and internationally and has attended many conferences serving as a presenter, a keynote speaker, chair of sessions and a discussant to the keynote speaker.

Chiraz Kilani is an HDR Lecturer in Didactics of Sciences and a teacher- researcher at the Higher Institute of Education and Continuing Education of Tunis. She is authorised to direct research in Didactics of Sciences and Sciences of Education. She holds a doctorate from Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University. She is the Director of the Supramolecular Chemistry and Science Didactics research unit and serves as the national coordinator and trainer with the team of the international foundation ‘Main à la Pâte’ (teaching science using the Investigative Approach). She is the author of several articles on the analysis of teaching practices. She is an Auditor 2100; a specialist in the field of training in University and Didactic Pedagogy (certified ISO 29990); and an expert in the training of adult trainers and lifelong learning.

Twine Hannington Bananuka works as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Adult and Community Education, School of Distance and Lifelong Learning at Makerere University, Uganda. He holds a Master’s degree and a PhD in Adult and Community Education from Florida A&M University, USA and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa respectively. His teaching and research interests are in areas of adult education and socio- economic transformation, community development, citizenship education, post- qualitative research methodologies, and innovative teaching and learning methods.

Mae Fastner currently serves as Regional Director for West Africa at DVV International, overseeing programmes and partnerships in several countries of the region, including Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo. She holds a master’s degree in public administration and for many years, she has worked in organizational development in the education sector, supporting partner organisations in strengthening governance, management structures and institutional capacities. She strongly believes in cross-continental collaboration, grounded in her experience that many countries face similar challenges and can benefit from shared learning.

Dr. Johann Heilmann is a German political scientist and development cooperation expert who earned his PhD for a thesis that analysed the role of Botswana in the Namibian liberation struggle against the South African Apartheid occupation. He has over a decade of experience in adult learning and education (ALE) and international development. He joined DVV International in 2017, where his work has focused on strengthening sustainable structures for adult education and lifelong learning in various countries.

Dr. Heilmann currently serves as the Regional Director for Southern Africa for DVV International (the German Adult Education Association) where he is based in Malawi. He previously served as the Regional Director for Southeast Asia. His earlier experience includes working in media development with the training institute of Germany's international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle Akademie.