The Global Partnership Co-Chairs

H.E. Mr. Christian Mwando Nsimba

Minister of Planning (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Mr. Christian Mwando Nsimba Kabulo is a politician from Congo-Kinshasa. Elected president of the political party Union of Nationalists and Federalists (UNADEF), he has been a national deputy since 2011. H.E. Mr. Nsimba Kabulo officially took office as Minister of State in charge of Planning on 28 April 2021. In the past, Mr. Mwando has been the Brand Manager of the UNILEVER Group in Zaire (MARSAVCO), the Directorate General of the SINTEXKIN-COTOLU Group, Urban President of the Federation of Businesses of Congo (FEC) / Lubumbashi, Provincial Vice-President of FEC / Katanga, Minister of the Budget and Planning and the Minister of Finance, Economy and Trade of the Province of Katanga.

H.E. Mr. Mustafa Kamal

Minister of Finance (Bangladesh)

Mr. Mustafa Kamal has been working as Finance Minister of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh since January 2019. He has been working hard to successfully achieve the Development Vision 2021 and 2041 and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Prior to this position, Mr. Kamal was elected four times to serve as a member of parliament and was the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Finance from 2009 to 2013. Beginning in January 2014 he served as the Minister of Planning until he was elected to his current position. Mr. Kamal was named the Finance Minister of the Year 2020 for Asia-Pacific and Global for his contribution to Bangladesh's financial sector by The Banker, a London-based magazine. He is the first Bangladeshi Finance Minister to receive such an award.

H.E. Mr. Thomas Gass

Ambassador, Assistant Director General, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Switzerland)

Mr. Thomas Gass brings with him wide-ranging experience in bilateral and multilateral development cooperation, as well as in natural sciences applied to development. From 2013 to 2017, he served as Assistant Secretary General at the Department for Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat in New York. Prior to this, he served as Ambassador of Switzerland to Nepal, as Head of the Economic and Development Section at the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN in New York, and as Chair of the Donor Group of the UN Global Compact. He also served as Deputy Resident Representative of the UNDP in Guyana, as Policy Advisor and Programme Officer for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Bern, Switzerland, and as Regional Director for Europe with the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute in Rome. Thomas Gass holds a PhD in Natural Sciences from the ETH-Zurich.

Mr. Vitalice Meja

Executive Director of Reality of Aid Africa (Non-Executive Co-Chair)

Mr. Vitalice Meja is a founding member and a former Co-Chair of the Civil Society Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE), an open platform that unites CSOs from around the world on effectiveness issues. He is the Executive Director of Reality of Aid Africa Network – a pan-African network focused on poverty eradication through effective development co-operation policies. A key purpose of the organization is to strengthen the involvement of African CSOs in informing policy issues related to the international aid architecture, as well as issues around development co-operation through research, capacity building and advocacy. Mr. Meja has many years of experience in development policy advocacy, as well as in research at national, regional, and international level on financing for development, debt, and ODA, with both governments and the multilateral bodies. He has been part of the effectiveness agenda for over 17 years.